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WORLD RAINFOREST MOVEMENT
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8 DECEMBER 1995
NEWS REPORTS FROM THE GUYANAS
GUYANA : TIMBER CONCESSION FREEZE HOLDS, JUST.
Environmentalists received a scare last month, when President
Cheddi Jagan of Guyana announced to the local press that the
multilateral development banks had given him the green light to
hand out more logging concessions to foreign companies. Aid
agency officials panicked - Guyana already has some 8.7 million
hectares under concession, far more than the over-stretched
forestry commission can handle - and new concessions would be
against agreements that the Government has signed with them.
Telephone lines from Washington and London hummed with anxiety
while the truth was disentangled. Was it coincidence that the
announcement was made while the head of the national forestry
commission - a known supporter of the concession freeze - was out
of the country, attending the International Tropical Timber
Council meetings?
The reality is somewhat more reassuring. Malaysia's sixth largest
conglomerate, the Berjaya Group, has through partnership with a
local company called Case Timbers, gained rights to an existing
217,000 acre concession, between the Upper Berbice and the
Essequibo, previously held but not exploited by the local firm
UNAMCO. Berjaya has promised to inject some US$15 million into
extracting and processing the timber. Just to the north, the
Singapore-based Prime Group, masterminded by Alex Ling Lee Soon
of Forest Resources Management, has taken over Demerara Timbers
Ltd which has the neighbouring 800,000 hectare concession. In
exchange the Prime group has been persuaded to relinquish its
rights to some 600,000 hectares on the Middle Mazaruni, to which
it had an anomalous 'exploratory' timber permit (no such permit
exists in Guyanese law!). The Prime Group has accepted the
continuing presence of the Dutch forestry research programme,
Tropenbos, within its concession.
The question remains - why was Jagan's press announcement so
inaccurate? Environmentalists and aid agency officials believe he
was testing world reaction to see whether anyone really cares
what happens in the interior. He can rest assured: the world is
watching and the aid agencies seem serious about getting control
of the run-away timber industry.
Meanwhile, some gains have been made by the Amerindians. Case
Timbers has had its concession in the Upper Baramita revoked - it
overlapped half the Carib Indians' reserve, created in 1977. The
Barama Company Limited has also agreed to excise the other half
of the Carib reserve from its concession. The Caribs only problem
is that their reserve is still covered by a gold prospecting
licence issued by the Geology and Mines Commission to the
Canadian transnational CANARC, which also has prospects and mines
in Venezuela, on the Upper Cuyuni, and on the Sara Creek, in
Suriname. In Guyana, CANARC is using the local consultancy firm
SEMCO to broker a deal with the local Caribs, whose own gold
mines are thus threatened with closure.
GUYANA: ROAD GOES AHEAD
The controversial Boa Vista to Georgetown road is under
construction again. With minor funds from the Guyana government,
a laterite trail is about to be constructed by the Guyana Defence
Force to link the road system of Demerara Timbers Limited, which
connects to Georgetown through Mabura Hill, to the existing road
up from Brazil which terminates on the Essequibo at Kurupukari.
NGOs have long called for an environmental impact study on the
road, to be published and subject to national debate, before the
road be completed - a demand heeded by the World Bank, which last
year financed the assessment. However, although the study was
completed in April 1995, by the British company Environmental
Resource Management (ERM), the document has never been made
public - is this because the mitigation measures advised by the
ERM, which included titling Amerindian lands, are viewed as
inconvenient? Brazil has now offered to build a bridge across the
Takutu river on the border. An all-weather road for four wheel-
drive vehicles will thus be open by the end of next year if
Government plans succeed.
GUYANA: IWOKRAMA RAINFOREST PROJECT MAKING SLOW PROGRESS ?
A legal bill is soon to be set before the National Assembly
formalising the establishment of the 360,000 hectare experimental
tropical forestry project in southern Guyana. The officially
named 'Iwokrama International Rain Forest Programme' was
announced by previous President Desmond Hoyte in 1989 and
received preliminary support from the Commonwealth Secretariat,
UNDP, the Global Environment Facility and Britain's ODA. But
delays in formalising the project and establishing its research
programme have led to donor fatigue.
When it was first announced the project was criticised as a
diversion from the main environmental concerns in the country,
which were runaway mining and logging, unplanned road
construction and lack of recognition of Amerindian rights. The
project was also criticised for having been developed without any
kind of consultation with the Amerindian communities and no
provisions to secure their 'intellectual property rights' - their
herb lore was to be the subject of a much-touted bio-prospecting
operation. The project has responded to some of these criticisms,
while nationally some progress has now been made in getting
logging and road-building under control. Under the new Bill
establishing the programme, existing Amerindian legal and
traditional rights are fully protected and the programme is
obligated to adopt procedures for recognizing and rewarding local
communities' contributions and intellectual knowledge.
However, other critics in Guyana have complained that the draft
Bill, which is interpreted as giving the land to the programme in
perpetuity, establishes a 'State within a State', to be run by
international civil servants on tax-free salaries and a board of
trustees who have absolute authority within the programme area.
Clear mechanisms to ensure that Guyanese citizens benefit from
the programme and that it is accountable to parliament are thus
being advocated, while the term of the lease may now be
restricted to 50 years. Other Guyanese have welcomed the presence
of the programme as it may help control traffic along the near-
completed Boa Vista-Georgetown road. Although the Bill excises
the road itself from the authority of the programme, some kind of
collaborative regime between the government and the programme is
envisaged for regulating traffic. To this end, the Government has
already announced that it will establish a 35-man customs, army
and police post at Kurupukari.
The project site overlaps the territories of a number of
Amerindian communities who use the area to hunt, fish and gather
forest products, as well as for small-scale mining. One community
of some 20 houses, Fairview, across the river from Kurupukari,
falls right within the reserve and presently lacks title to its
lands. The challenge for the staff is now to find an effective
way of recognising these peoples' rights and ensuring they
benefit from, and have a say in, the running of the progamme.
SURINAME: MINING DISPUTE STILL UNRESOLVED
The conflict between Golden Star Resources Ltd (GSRL) and the
Saramaka Maroons who live near the Gros Rosebel gold-mining
prospect remains tense. After the small-scale mines near
Koolhoven were closed in January, when the Maroons were
threatened with air-strikes if they refused to leave, attention
has shifted to the Nieuw Koffiekamp area. A heavy military
presence has been put in place to patrol the prospecting zones
and the local people complain of being shot at and prevented
having access to both their forests and small-scale mines.
The community of Nieuw Koffiekamp has already experienced forced
relocation to make way for SURALCO's dam at Brokopondo in the
1970s. They fear they will now be evicted again to make way for
'Suriname's Omai'; a joint venture between GSRL and Cambior Inc.
is being negotiated.
Under pressure from the Saramaka, therefore, the Government has
set up a commission brokered by the Organisation of American
States to listen to their complaints and try to find an amicable
solution to the land conflict. In the course of these discussions
the Government has offered alternative land - in the form of an
'economical zone' some 20 kilometres away - to the people of
Nieuw Koffiekamp, if they will agree to move.
Granman (Saramaka chief) Sengo Aboikoni notes that the problem
that the Saramaka face at Nieuw Koffiekamp is the same as that
faced by all the interior peoples of Suriname: they have no
legally recognised land rights and the government is seeking to
impose logging and mining concessions without their consent. 'We
need title to our lands and our 'economical zones' first before
the Government invites in foreign companies' he said, noting that
his people wanted the support of foreign governments in their
struggle and that they fear a repeat of their experience with the
Brokopondo dam. 'The Government doesn't pay attention to these
things' he noted 'that's why we held the Gran Krutu (the first
General Assembly in Suriname bringing together all the Maroon and
Indigenous peoples of the interior held in August this year) to
seek a solution to these problems. But the Government just got
angry with us as a result of the Gran Krutu, they see us as the
cause of a lot of trouble. The Government needs to understand
that now that we have schools and education in the interior we
are able to express ourselves to them. The Government should not
be angry now that the people of the interior can speak up for
themselves.'
Local GSRL head Peter Donald refused to meet with a World
Rainforest Movement representative visiting Paramaribo, referring
him to GSRL's head office in Denver. On the telephone, Mr
Ardjomandi of GSRL noted that the company has not yet decided
whether the mine should go ahead or not. The negotiations with
the Saramaka had been demanded by the people he noted and had the
aim of ensuring that whatever happens the people will not suffer.
GSRL has pointed out previously that it is the Government of
Suriname which has legal responsibility for the welfare of the
Saramaka and issues such as land rights and compensation.
However, legal controls on mining in Suriname are very weak.
Under the 1986 Mining Decree companies are required to use
'appropriate technologies' having 'due regard to...the need to
protect eco-systems' and to clean up or restore mined areas 'to
the satisfaction of the Minister' when they finish. Under the
act, a working plan to restore mined lands should be filed with a
mining application. Going beyond the legal requirements, the two
bauxite companies, SURALCO and Billiton (GENCOR) do now carry out
Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) of new developments but
these are not made public. More seriously, the Government
entirely lacks the capacity to monitor compliance with mining
agreements independently.
Despite the weakness of the law, the Government has required some
new investors to carry out EIAs, an obligation they imposed on
GSRL, which last year contracted RESCAN of Canada to carry out a
baseline study. GSRL says that a further EIA will be carried out
once they have decided that the prospect is worth developing.
SURINAME: SURALCO TO MINE WANE CREEK NATURE RESERVE
Two beautiful low hills in eastern Suriname near the MUNGO mining
area were declared a nature reserve a few years ago after mining
giant SURALCO, which had rights to the area, decided mining the
hills on either side of the Wane Creek would be uneconomic.
Changing ore supplies have now forced SURALCO to revise its
position and the reserve now faces obliteration through SURALCO's
ceaseless quest for bauxite. Such is SURALCO's haste that it is
now driving roads through the area without even waiting for the
results of the EIA that it has commissioned.
SURINAME: NEW BAKHUIS BAUXITE MINE UNDER STUDY
Plans to develop the bauxite deposit at Bakhuis in western
Suriname are again under study. The mines were to have been the
centre-piece for a 'development pole', commenced by the Dutch in
1974, the goal being to create a new town and major port at Apura
on the Courentyne, connected by railway to the Bakhuis deposit.
The plan was dropped after independence as a result of which the
railroad has fallen into disrepair, being occasionally used to
ship gravel down to the port at Apura.
A team from international consultants MacKay and Schellman is now
carrying out a feasibility study to look into the possibilities
of reviving the programme, while Knight Piesold is carrying out a
preliminary environmental impact survey. The mine, if it goes
ahead, seems certain to affect some indigenous communities and
will require the clearance of substantial areas of rainforest.
SURINAME: LOGGING CONCESSIONS STILL IMMINENT?
Uncertainty surrounds the three one-million hectare concessions
promised to Asian companies by the Venetiaan government. Faced
with dissent from the interior peoples, who have demanded that
their own land rights be recognised first before foreigners get
logging rights, and under heavy presure from environmentalists
and aid agencies, the government is hesitating. President Enrique
Iglesias of the Inter-American Development Bank has offered a
US$25 million package to reform the timber industry and inject
desperately needed foreign exchange on condition that the
Government freezes the hand-out of concessions - but President
Venetiaan of Suriname has reacted dismissively : the offer, he
said, was 'eco-colonialism' and 'meddling' in Suriname's internal
affairs. What kind of colonialism and meddling he thinks foreign
logging companies carry out is not so clear. According to local
newspaper reports Suri-Atlantic, a front company for Indonesia's
shadowy Antang group, has grown impatient of delays and may have
faded from the running as backers look elsewhere to place their
investments. Meanwhile MUSA is said to be unpopular with the
government for employing opposition leader Desi Bouterse in its
timber poaching operations in Central Suriname. Berjaya remains
the most likely to get a concession, according to local
environmentalists, but its concession is also the most contested
as it overlaps the most territories of Maroon and Indigenous
peoples. Local observers speculate that the government is
delaying the concession handout because it cannot afford to
forfeit the vote of the interior peoples in the up-coming
elections, scheduled for May 1996. Ten seats in the National
Assembly are decided by the interior communities : the government
needs them if it is to maintain a majority.
However, in a gesture of reconciliation to Maroon and Indigenous
demands, President Venetiaan has also been reported as saying
that he will not give away forests to outsiders if the local
people are opposed. He warned the communities, however, that if
they reject the foreign companies they would have to fend for
themselves. Any development they wanted would have to funded from
their own resources. Local Berjaya representative Paul Yeong has,
according to local press, also said that the company will avoid
logging areas claimed by local communities. If the communities do
not want us we will log elsewhere, he is reported to have said.
Although the Venetiaan Government initially snubbed the Inter-
American Development Bank it has accepted a technical support
project from the FAO. Working under a programme titled
'Strengthening National Capacity for Sustainable Development of
Forests on Public Lands', the four man team from the FAO is
looking to develop a series of projects for donor funding to
reform the government's capacity to regulate the timber industry.
The FAO is looking seriously at the possibility of developing a
legally authorised and autonomous 'Forest Management and
Development Authority' (previously refered to as a 'Timber
Institute') which would have the task of collecting revenue from
logging companies and overseeing adherence to their management
plans. The European Commission has already expressed an interest
in supporting such a body. Unlike the IDB, the FAO has set no
conditions to its support, and indeed seems to be working on the
assumption that the Berjaya company will eventually get its
concession. How they expect the new authority to have the
political strength to control the company's operations, if the
government couldn't even prevent it getting access to over 1
million hectares of forests, remains far from clear.
The proposed deal with the InterAmercan Development Bank may not
be dead, moreover. Recently, President Venetiaan wrote a belated
reply to the IDB offer. It remains to be seen whether he will
accept the IDB's conditions of a freeze in the hand out of
concessions.
For further information contact: Forest Peoples Programme, World
Rainforest Movement, 8 Chapel Row, Chadlington, OX7 3NA, England
Tel: 01608 676 691 Fax: + 44 1608 676 743 Email: wrm@gn.apc.org
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