Guyana’s forest produce access UK markets

[www.inewsguyana.com] – Guyana’s forest produce has been able to break into the UK market, with the first shipment of sawn Greenheart lumber.

The shipment of almost 2700m3 of sawn lumber is being shipped to Aitken and Howard, Milton Sawmills in Jamestown, Scotland UK.

A media release from the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) noted that Co – Owner of the Company, Roderick Aitken has advised that the greenheart is for typically large engineering projects through the UK and Europe, ranging from bridge construction, marine defence projects and Oil industry projects.

According to the GFC, Aitken and Howard’s buying policy is for suppliers to do as much downstream processing in country as possible; this enables the local suppliers to get a better profit, as well as generate more in country employment.

“Mr. Aitken also praised Guyana’s Wood Tracking System (WTS), which is national in scale,” the GFC noted.

He emphasized that it was largely due to the WTS that they were able to import these timbers into the European market.

“The W.T.S. gives us and our customers a very high degree of confidence that the lumber is all traceable and the logs have been felled in accordance with the GFC code of practice. It cannot be underestimated how important these traceability schemes are to the end customer and are a part of the requirements to export to Europe,” Aitken said.

In Guyana’s National Forest Policy and other relevant Policy documents, it is clearly articulated that State Forest resources are part of the patrimony of all Guyanese. The Government has also emphasized that these resources must be accessed in keeping with the legal framework, and sustainably harvested in keeping with social and environmental global best practices, adapted to the Guyana specific situation.

According to the GFC,  Guyana has also voluntarily invited independent auditors and assessors to objectively examine its Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) guidelines and their implementation at the forest concession level.

The GFC noted that these audits/assessments have also confirmed that Guyana’s deforestation rate is extremely low – less than 0.1 %.