Georgetown : Guyana and Malaysia’s forestry sectors share several similarities in that they are generally well managed and forestry administrations are committed to achieving Sustainable Forestry Management.
With this in mind, and the need to foster closer collaboration and sharing of experiences, a delegation from Guyana recently participated in a bilateral meeting which was led by Robert M. Persaud, Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment, Gavin Agard, Forestry Specialist from the Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment and Tasreef Khan, Deputy Commissioner of the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC).
According to the ministry’s Release, the forestry sectors in both countries’ economy play an important role in national development. To ensure that growth follows the correct trajectory, the Guyanese delegation participated in bilateral meetings with representatives from the Government of Malaysia and Senior Executives from Samling Global Limited which is the parent company of Barama Company Limited.
Bilateral discussions were centered on cooperation between the Governments of Malaysia and Guyana on several broad thematic areas related to Sustainable Forest Management, and avenues for collaboration and capacity building such as monitoring deforestation particularly, within the mining sector.
Extensive discussions with the Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC) and the Malaysian Timber Council (MTC) related to the implementation of the European Union Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (EUFLEGT) have proven fruitful since Malaysian counterparts have gained extensive experience over the past decade since commencing formal negotiation.
The Guyana delegation also witnessed several commercial forest activities such as a large scale oil palm plantation and a state-of-the-art plywood factory, which will be further examined for technology and knowledge transfer for improved value added processing within Guyana’s forestry sector.
You must be logged in to post a comment.