(Kaieteur News) The Forestry Training Centre Incorporated (FTCI) attached to the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) continues to play a significant role in the training of stakeholders that will be able to contribute significantly to the development of the forestry sector in Guyana.
Quacy Bremner, Manager, FTCI
A total of 240 persons are set to undergo the training in the field of Mapping and Global Positioning System (GPS) usage. The six months training programme is scheduled to begin in October 2019, and was implemented as a way to curb the current issue of ‘over logging’ that the Forestry Commission has been experiencing with local and international logging companies for the past decades.
During an interview, Quacy Bremner, Manager of the Forestry Commission, told Kaieteur News that when a contract is signed for logging companies to operate in Guyana forests the contract would usually include basic information such as the specific acre of lands that should be operated on by the company.
However, due to the fact that Guyana does not have workers with adequate knowledge of Mapping and GPS usage, logging companies would usually go beyond the terms of the contract and freely take away unaccounted logs from Guyana’s forests without the knowledge of Forest officials.
“Training local stakeholders to work in this area will be beneficial to the country, because after completing the training programme the stakeholders will be able to give out direct information to logging companies about the boundaries given to them to operate in Guyana Forest,” Mr. Bremner mentioned.
He further stated that, “the stakeholders will also be subjected to record keeping so if any logging company is found at any time breaching the contract terms, they will be place before the courts and the contract will be discarded.”
According to Bremner, the experts who will be training the stakeholders are overseas based and will ensure that they receive quality training that can be incorporated into ever day forestry activities. These training initiatives will be funded by the Government of Guyana, Stakeholders and Donor Agencies
For the first half of 2019, FTCI trained over 100 persons in programmes such as Health and Safety, Reduced Impact Logging, Forests Inventory and Timber Grading so as to ensure the continuous development of the Guyana Forestry Commission.