Sustainable Forest Management
Guyana’s 13.6 million hectares of commercial forests are managed by the Guyana Forestry Commission based on the principles of sustainable forest management. Commercial harvesting of timber is governed by the National Forest Policy (NFP) 1997, which emphasizes multiple uses involving:
- timber production;
- eco-tourism;
- watershed protection; and
- conservation of biodiversity.
In summary, the specific objectives of the NFP are:
- promotion of sustainable and efficient utilization of the nation’s forest resources for national development and alleviation of poverty; and
- improving forest production and sustained yield while ensuring the conservation of biodiversity and environmental protection.
The NFP and Forests Act are operationalised through a Code of Forest Practice, which sets the minimum operational standards including requirements to plan for the selection of trees, fall direction, skid trail layout etc.
The GFC’s Forest Monitoring Division enforces Guyana’s forest laws and regulations through regular monitoring and reporting on commercial harvesting operations. A log tracking system is in place to enable the sources of harvested timber to be traced. This ensures that only Guyanese timbers from legal sources, approved by the GFC, enter the international trade.
You can therefore buy Guyanese timbers in the assurance that they have been harvested based on the principles of sustainable forest management, and the guidelines for responsible management of tropical forests as enunciated by the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO), of which we are a long standing member.
For more information on our National Forest Policy, Code of Forest Practice and Forest Laws please refer to the detailed documents by clicking the links below:
(These documents are in Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF) and can be read using their free Acrobat Reader, which you can obtain from their website.)