Local businessman Howard Bulkan says his company’s application to lease 10 acres of land along the Linden-Lethem road to process timber was denied and he has contrasted this with the fact that the authorities have given out millions of acres of virgin forest lands to Asians who simply export unprocessed logs.

“The GFC (Guyana Forestry Commission) can give out millions of acres of virgin forest lands to Asians who are simply exporting unprocessed round logs, but a Guyanese manufacturer cannot lease 10 acres in his own country,” Bulkan said in a letter published in the Christmas Day edition of Stabroek News. He said that an explanation was requested from Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment Robert Persaud but they only got an acknowledgement of their letter from the ministry’s permanent secretary.

Relating the sequence of events, Bulkan said that his company, Superior Shingles & Wood Products Inc. (SSWP), has plans to develop a 10-acre, timber processing depot approximately 40 miles along the Linden-Lethem (Mabura) road. “This processing depot will help small wallaba suppliers in the area to transport their produce easily to a market in close physical proximity to their concessions, negating the need for these people to undertake unproductive and expensive trips out of the interior to transact their business,” he wrote.

“At this depot SSWP will cut the round logs into blocks suitable for conversion to sawn shingles and the company will benefit from having to truck less waste to our primary manufacturing plant. The biodegradable wood waste will be left in the forest for natural reintegration by Mother Nature.

We envision it to be a ‘win-win-win’ situation,” he added.

Bulkan said that on April 28, 2014, they had a meeting with Commissioner of Forests (CoF) James Singh to advise him of these plans and to seek his input on the way forward.

“The CoF advised that while the project would have the support of the Guyana Forestry Commission, we would need to apply for the state land through the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GLSC),” Bulkan recalled.

He said that on April 29, 2014, they met with Commissioner of the GLSC Doorga Persaud and shortly after, officially applied to the agency for the land.

At the end of last month, some seven months later, he received a letter from the Manager of the Land Administration Division of the GLSC dated October 22, 2014 advising that his “request has been placed on file” and that he “will be invited to attend an interview when a parcel of land is available,” Bulkan disclosed.

“Obviously perplexed by such a vague response to a very specific application, we again met with Commissioner Persaud of the GLSC on December 4, 2014, in an effort to establish some clarity on the matter,” he said while adding that “here is where we delve into the realm of the extraordinary.”

The businessman said that they were advised that in 2004, a specially convened Land Use Planning Committee, headed by former Commissioner of the GLSC Andrew Bishop, submitted to cabinet a land use plan for either side of the 268 miles roadway connecting Linden to Lethem.

“Since that report was submitted a decade ago, there has been no further action by government and consequently, allegedly no application for the lease of state lands along this significant stretch of roadway can be processed,” Bulkan said.

Concern has been raised before that despite the higher returns that can be realised from the value-added processing of logs locally, government has not moved with alacrity to compel major logging firms such as China’s Baishanlin and India’s Vaitarna Holdings Private Inc (VHPI) to do so and as the companies continue to export huge quantities of logs annually, Guyana has been foregoing millions of dollars.

Exporting logs rather than processing the timber locally has long been a concern, since numerous promises have been made by the government and foreign investors about value-added operations. The promise of value-added has been seen as sugar coating to enable the export of large quantities of logs, particularly to China and India, even though there is little job creation here or value enhancement.

Firms such as Vaitarna and Baishanlin have been exporting logs on a large scale even though government officials and the companies themselves have committed to processing wood here. Some of these exports have been ongoing for years with the companies failing to set up promised wood processing facilities.