The Forestry Training Centre Incorporated (FTCI) and Iwokrama Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development (Iwokrama) will implement in Guyana the project “Developing alternatives for illegal chainsaw lumbering through multi-stakeholder dialogue in Ghana and Guyana” to address the negative impacts of chainsaw milling, while maintaining and enhancing its positive socio-economic effects for local and indigenous people. The project has started in 2007 and will run for five years.

The official launch of this project in Guyana will be on November 30 at 9.00 hrs at the Cazabon Room, Hotel Tower, Main Street, Georgetown.  This launching ceremony is expected to engage a broad spectrum of stakeholders representing the forestry and natural resources sectors in Guyana.  All media are invited to this launching ceremony. This National Launch is the first of many discussions that will be taken at the national level to review chainsaw milling.

A representative of the European Commission in Guyana, The Honourable Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Robert Persaud, and the Commissioner of Forests, Mr. James Singh among others will be addressing stakeholders at the launching ceremony.

 

More information on the project

The project is financed by the European Commission and is being implemented by Tropenbos International (TBI) based in the Netherlands, through two local partners in Guyana: Iwokrama and FTCI. (The partners in Ghana are the Ghana Forestry Commission (FC) and the Forest Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG).

The project has a duration of 5 years (March 2007-March 2012) and a total budget of €2,732,513 (approximately G$751.4m) of which 80 percent is funded by the European Commission and 20 percent by the partners.

The project focuses on the broad theme of forest governance in countries with a high incidence of chainsaw milling, and reviews the situation in Ghana and Guyana respectively. In many local and indigenous forest dependent communities, chainsaw lumbering is an important means of livelihood. The simplicity of chainsaw milling also facilitates illegal operations leading to conflict with legitimate forest users. Chainsaw lumbering is currently banned in Ghana.

The project will build on prior work to identify what factors promote chainsaw milling and document its social, economic and environmental impacts. Further, the project will bring together stakeholders to discuss innovative approaches that reduce negative impacts and enhance the positive effects on incomes and livelihoods in hinterland communities. Finally, promising approaches will be piloted in three selected communities.

The overall goal of the project is to reduce the level of conflict and illegality related to chainsaw lumbering by local communities while key objectives include reducing poverty and the promotion of viable livelihoods in forest-dependent communities, reducing the occurrence of illegal logging and promotion of the sustainable management of tropical forests in developing countries.

Target groups include stakeholders of chainsaw lumbering in Ghana and Guyana such as chainsaw lumberers, sawmill owners, forest concession holders, the government and the conservation and development community. Specifically, eleven communities (three in Guyana - Orealla, Ituni, and the Makushi Yemekun Cooperative of the North Rupununi) dependent on chainsaw lumbering will be targeted. At the international level the project will contribute to define international best practices to address chainsaw lumbering, to this purpose forestry decision makers will be  targeted.

The project will be managed by a national project management team (PMT) comprising representatives of Forestry Training Centre Incorporated and Iwokrama.

The project will also be guided by a national Project Advisory Committees (PACs) consisting of representatives of key stakeholders and agencies whose areas of operation, mandate or expertise are crucial to the project objectives in the long run. The PAC will meet at least once a year to review progress, assess impact and social, economic, cultural and political implications of project actions and results and advice the management team accordingly.  The first meeting of the PAC is also scheduled for November 29, 2007 at 10.30 hrs at the Hotel Tower.

Some of the actions taken to date include establishment of a local Project Secretariat, planning inception meeting held in the Netherlands with all partners, preparation of gap analysis report of research to be conducted, commencement of stakeholder analysis to inform a multi stakeholder learning platform.

For further information, please contact:

Ms. Rohini Persaud-Kerrett

Project Coordinator

Project Secretariat

Forestry Training Centre Inc.

1 Water Street, Kingston

Georgetown

Tel: (592) 227 0724; Fax: (592) 223 5061

Email: chainsawproject@gmail.com

This project is funded by the European Union
Delegation of the European Project Secretariat

Commission in Guyana

11 Sendall Place, Stabroek

Georgetown                                                 

Tel: (592) 226 6004

Fax: (592) 226 2615

A collaborative project of Tropenbos International,Forestry Training Centre Inc. and Iwokrama International Center of Rainforest Conservation and Development.
Project Secretariat
1 Water Street, Kingston
Georgetown
Tel: (592) 227 0724
Fax: (592) 223 5061
Email: chainsawproject@gmail.com