Letter: Letters: Green logging

From HELEN WHITNEY McIVER

The Edinburgh Centre for Tropical Forests (ECTF) is not providing ‘a
green cover for a logging company’ in Guyana (This Week, 12 September).
The quoted criticisms from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Friends
of the Earth (FOE), neither of whom have contacted ECTF to inquire about
its contract to monitor the logging concession, have missed the point on
two critical issues.

First, ECTF firmly believes that while some forest resources must remain
preserved untouched, it is essential for others to be wisely managed for
social, environmental and economic benefits. Further, we are committed to
the regeneration of forests and the establishment of plantations to take
pressure off remaining natural forests. Few logging companies have delivered
sustainable forestry, frequently due to short concession periods, and the
government of Guyana’s foresight in this instance lies in allocating a very
long concession period of Barama (50 years).

Barama has recruited, on its own initiative, independent forestry expertise
to monitor operations and to support sustainable forest management. ECTF
has the environmental, social, economic and forestry skills to fulfil this
vital role. It maintains its independence by reporting to government, and
by its right to publish in the international press.

Secondly, defining sustainable forestry, maintaining biodiversity and
safeguarding the interests of Amerindian communities form the basis of ECTF’s
agenda in developing proposals for our long-term research and monitoring
role. These proposals are currently being prepared, and have yet to be agreed
with the government of Guyana and with Barama.

Far from providing ‘green cover’ ECTF is actively working towards the
sustainable management, conservation and protection of tropical forests.

Helen Whitney McIver The Edinburgh Centre for Tropical Forests University
of Edinburgh