Dear Editor,
I wish to respond to the article carried by Guyana Times newspaper on Sunday August 30, 2020 under the caption “Illegal loggers, exorbitant fees, affecting investment in the forestry sector”, which was penned by the director of large logging company A. Mazaharally & Sons Ltd (AMSL), Mr. Ahmad Mazahar Ally.
The question I ask is: “Is it legal or illegal logging if a contract is in force?”
The article, penned on August 30, 2020, highlighted the views that illegal logging is a major reason for the downfall in the forestry sector, as these activities, and I quote, “manipulate and cheat the system to its disadvantage”. In essence, the article purports that illegal logging robs and cripples the forestry industry in Guyana.
Ironically, the very company which penned the article is considered a perpetrator of the very acts it so blatantly outlines – robbery and manipulation.
When facing troubled waters in 2018, AMSL entered into contractual agreements (which in essence amounts to subletting, and is illegal, according to forestry laws) with small logging operators in the Essequibo Region, from whom they demanded payments of surety in exchange for permission to harvest and extract lumber from the concessions granted them under the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC). However, at the time of extraction, they refused every one of these operators the requisite removal documents for produce, while at the same time they refused to enter any further sort of repayment agreement for monies spent.
It is these same small logging operators & companies they (AMSL) now label as illegal operators, who have decided to take action after enduring months of agony.
These questions are therefore asked: At which point in operations did the activity become illegal? On what grounds were the contracts terminated? When? Why? And why no notice? What measurement does the company use to determine the legality of logging operations, especially since the company is no law abider itself in keeping with the regulations of the Forestry Commission? How is it that the breach of contract in one regard does not warrant another?
It was once said by a great and wise teacher: “He that is without sin, cast the first stone”. AMSL, as a local logging company, has failed not only the Guyana Forestry Commission, but also the Guyanese public at large over the last four (4) decades, as it continues to hold on by some strange means to large parcels of rich forested lands without working them.
This not only denies Guyanese jobs, and the economy its due circulation of money, but also deprives others in the logging industry of acquiring any lands for their sustenance and operations. This shameful behaviour by the now sanctimonious company is what strangles the forestry industry, and the Guyana Forestry Commission is deprived of its fair and much deserved share of revenues. Now, that’s illegal!
Had they not inactively and greedily pursed up for themselves these large masses of land, three hundred and fifty million ($350,000,000) dollars of Guyanese hard-earned tax dollars would not have been required to “bail-out” the failing logging industry.
Sincerely,
Essequibo Small Loggers
