Barama moving towards certified ‘green’ exports
Stabroek News
March 3, 2003
Barama Company Limited is moving to ensure it can supply environmentally certified forestry products to key importers in North America and Europe.
In a press release announcing the initiative, James Keylon, the company’s Managing Director said Barama was moving for full certification with the dual purpose of maintaining and expanding its share of the export market. He said the plywood company obtains 50% of its revenues from exports to North America and Europe.
He added that better management of its forestry resources would get Barama ahead of its competitors on the world market. “This means more export earnings for Guyana and greater job security for the 1,200 personnel at Barama,” Keylon added.
Barama Company Limited, according to the press release, is the first company in South and Central America to embark on a two-stage certification programme, which is run by a Swiss-based certifying body (SGS). According to the company’s Forest Planning Manager, Luvendra Sukraj. The first stage is to support efforts to improve forest management through a structured auditing programme, while the second is to track timber and products from participating forests through processing to the retail market. The company recently received certification for its forest management and has started a project to initially certify about 550,000 hectares of its concession.
It will then work towards certifying the entire concession Commissioner of the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) James Singh said certification was what determined a forestry product’s entry into the premium market. This certification was based primarily on compliance with legal requirements for logging and forestry management.
Singh declared that Barama, now in its 12th year of operations, had complied with the Code of Practice for Forest Operations and had met all legal requirements of the Forestry Commission. The company has a 1.6M-hectare forest concession in Northwest Guyana.
Barama’s operations are monitored by the GFC to ensure that the company observes sound logging practices. To help this process, the Edinburgh Centre for Tropical Forests was contracted by Barama for a seven-year period (1993-2000) to conduct research.
Around fifty permanent sample plots were established in the Northwest concession from which data were collected on various aspects of the dynamics of the forest.
Singh confirmed that data from that research is now being used by the Commission to develop a growth and yield model for the country.
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is said to be an important partner in the certification process and is giving technical and financial support to Barama.
Sukraj stated that Barama’s certification will place Guyana at the forefront of world forestry and sustainability practices since the current project has the potential of being the largest certified natural tropical forest in the world.
Barama had made a commitment since 2001 to pursue the Forest Stewardship Council’s Management and Chain of Custody Certification for its operations.
