The Ministry of Natural Resources is expected to begin distributing the forest concessions that were given up by Barama in April.
Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman said that 17 expressions of interest have been received for the 1.6M hectares of lands. “We are in the process of reviewing them and will be in a position to start allocating in April,” Trotman said.
Last October, Barama, a Malaysian company with operations in Guyana, announced it had no intention of renewing its concession agreement after the expiry date of October 15, 2016. The lands then reverted to the state.
Meanwhile, Trotman dismissed recent claims by the Private Sector Commission in the local media that concessions were not being given out. The minister noted that the statements were inaccurate.
“We had to have a period of advertisement, a period of analysing the responses and we will be redistributing later this year,” Trotman explained. He pointed out that last December, 70 concessions were given out to small loggers throughout the country.
