Dear Editor,
In August of 2020, the Minister of Natural Resources told the people of Ituni and surrounding communities of the Sub-region, that the sectors they are dependent on, specifically forestry and mining, that development will be coming. Six years on this is seen as yet another empty and broken promises.
For decades, Ituni and surrounding communities of the Sub-region have generated significant national wealth through mining and forestry. Contributing measurable value to Guyana’s GDP, exports, and public revenues, yet the level of development returned to these communities, have not reflected the scale of resources extracted. Forcing these communities to demand justice in resource governance.
Back in 2020, residents and loggers raised several urgent matters that were important to their survival. They needed access to concessions closer to the community, more tags and fair distribution for legal logging, access to government financial support, a real upgrade to the Linden-to-Kwakwani road and accountability for the quarry operating within reach of the community, that is extracting stone while the Linden-to-Kwakwani road suffer.
Almost six years later and the Minister’s return to the community leaves residents staring at the same empty promises. At his first meeting in 2020, the Minister announced a $900 million Forestry Revolving Fund to support the forestry sector. It was presented as a mechanism to help the loggers associations, medium, and small-scale loggers. These loggers continue to face the said challenges the fund was established to address.
What loggers would like to know is, how can a $900 million support fund exist, and yet the logger’s association nor any of its members have never benefited from it? Instead, they were pointed toward another future institution, another ‘coming soon’ solution, a merchant bank that will be opening, and more promises that loggers can seek financing someday. The Logger’s Association also asked for what makes sense, concessions closer to the community, opportunities that reduce cost, and increase viability.
But the response, again, were promises without plans, timelines, and no clear intention to ensure that loggers of the community have access to better concessions. Residents bluntly expressed to the minister last week, like they did in 2020, that “pitch patch” works on the Linden-to-Kwakwani road is not what they deserve and what the President had promised. This route is not a luxury road. It’s a lifeline road. It carries people, supplies, commerce, and emergency response while contributing billions towards national GDP.
Residents have been seeing patch works for years, and even recently, by the Ministry of Public Works, with official statements on the Linden-Kwakwani trail. The people are not begging for patch works. They are demanding what was promised, a proper road. Here is the irony of the Linden-to-Kwakwani trail. Ituni sits in the shadow of the most important materials for road building; sand, laterite, and stone. Pulled from the earth around them, yet a major piece of its own infrastructure remains weak.
The state of Ituni and the surrounding communities of the Sub-region, shows what “resource injustice” looks like in real time. Where extraction is high and community benefits are low. This government must therefore see Ituni and the surrounding communities of the Sub-region, not as asking for favours. They are not. They are asking for a fair return on what Guyana earns from their labour, the timber, land, stone, and other minerals that are being removed from around them. The Minister last week repeated the same things he said in 2020. So, residents are now left to hope that the outcome is not the same. Where years after, they will be asking for the same things.
What the people want is access to the $900M Forestry Revolving Fund, better concession for Ituni/Kwakwani loggers, with accessible locations and transparent distribution. The associations would like a tag distribution system with fair allotments and a Linden-to-Kwakwani road commitment that goes beyond patchwork. They would also like to have a committed “quarry-community” benefit framework to help with local development.
Ituni and surrounding communities of the Sub-region must not be treated like footnotes in Guyana’s prosperity story. These communities do not want more promises. They want outcomes. Not another meeting. Not another microphone moment. Not another “soon.” This can start right now, not by “pitch patch” works of the trail, but a properly upgraded Linden-to-Kwakwani Road.