Iwokrama is known as the “green heart of Guyana” and is home to a tropical forest paradise.

It’s also currently in the news as the Iwokrama forest, managed by the Centre for Rain Forest Conservation and Development (IIC) is the first in Guyana to get Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification, committing to social, environmental and economic ways of working.

It also hit the headlines for Prince Harry’s recent visit to the centre as part of his caribbean tour. His father the Prince of Wales has been IIC’s patron since 2000.

The 3,710km2 forest (371,000ha), roughly the size of Cornwall, represents 1.6% of Guyana’s landmass and 2% of Guyana forests.

This FSC certification is a big deal and follows many years of hard work by the Guyanese and stakeholders. IIC received funding for FSC certification from the German government in 2014 and was keen to regain international recognition for its sustainable forest management.

The highly-valued hardwood timbers in the forest – such as greenheart and purpleheart – are prized for their durability and hardness, being used globally in marine construction, particularly sea defences and piers.

Although there are other timber species which are used in such applications, the performance and historical track record of greenheart has made it the timber of choice for the most demanding situations.

To have an independently verified sustainable supply of greenheart is a great boost for the international timber trade and the supply possibilities for Guyana’s timber sector, particularly as there have been some recent challenges to the species’ environmental profile.

A UK Environment Agency (EA) briefing note issued last year stipulated that Guyanese greenheart had insufficient evidence of sourcing from sustainably-managed forests so would not be accepted for its projects. The EA’s own certified timber sourcing targets were the principle reason for this and its decision had a big impact on greenheart use in the UK, with the agency being hitherto a large user of greenheart.

The Guyana Manufacturing & Services Association (GMSA) and the country’s authorities had recently stepped up their lobbying against the ban.

UK importer Aitken and Howard and its parent company, Gilmour & Aitken expressed delight at Iwokrama’s FSC first for Guyana and said they would be bringing in the first shipment of newly FSC-certified greenheart into the UK.

“Our company has been working closely with all stakeholders in Guyana for many years promoting the UK’s demand for certified timber,” said Roderick Aitken, director of Gilmour & Aitken.

“We have always believed UK recognised certification is achievable in Guyana due to the existing strong management systems installed by the Guyanese Forestry Commission and their code of practice. It is great for the industry in Guyana to receive positive recognition in this demanding UK public purchasing system.

“Giving well managed tropical forests a value helps reduce the risk of them being converted to a different more destructive land use such as mining or intensive agriculture.” Mr Aitken said he looked forward to the EA issuing a statement retracting its previous technical note.

“The power of this technical note led to a 65% reduction in greenheart exported to the UK since its issue and created a deeply unfair perception of Guyanese forestry. We continue to work with all stakeholders to provide further evidence of Category B compliance.”

Soil association auditing

The Soil Association said it had been working closely with IIC for the past few months and issued the FSC certificate on October 14, effectively guaranteeing all greenheart from Iwokrama’s forest as FSC-certified and therefore meeting UK government requirements. Its earliest contact with IIC was back in 2008.

Maria Berlango, Soil Association forestry senior certification officer, and colleague senior certification manager Janette McKay conducted the auditing process in mid-September following an earlier preassessment training visit in May.

They set out on a two-day journey from Guyana’s capital Georgetown to the field centre 300km away – an eight hour journey – to complete the four-day forest certification audit.

Ms Berlango said Iwokrama was home to some of the world’s largest and most endangered species – including the harpy eagle, jaguar and anaconda.

The forest is divided into two sectors. One is kept as a wilderness preserve (50% of the total area) while the other is the Sustainable Use Area.

Reduced impact logging techniques are used in the latter, notably directional felling. This minimises damage to the remaining trees and ensures logs are easily accessible for extraction, which minimises disturbance to surrounding vegetation. Less than 10 trees per hectare are removed and regeneration is left to happen naturally.

Ms Berlango said the biggest challenge for Iwokrama was to continue strengthening cooperation and engagement with the people who live in the forest. To be committed to this, in the form of work, training and consultation is a key part of existing and future plans.

There are nine distinct forest types in the Iwokrama Forest. The largest covers 33% of the forest and is mixed greenheart, black kakaralli and wamara forest.

Around 20% of the forest is mixed greenheart, sand baromalli and soft wallaba forest, while about 16% of the forest is mora, manicole, crabwood and trysil forest. Some 15% is mixed low stature forest and 7% is manicole, kokerite and soft wallaba palm forest

The Soil Association believes that as the programme grows and the benefits of certification become evident, local forestry and logging companies will be encouraged to follow suit.

IIC was established in 1996 to manage the forest area, following the signing of an international agreement between the Guyana Government and the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Enshrined in an Act of the Guyana Parliament, the agreement gave IIC the mandate to “promote the conservation and the sustainable and equitable use of tropical rainforests in a manner that will lead to lasting ecological, economic and social benefits to the people of Guyana and to the world in general”.

That’s quite a mission statement. With the first forest certification in the bag, IIC is certainly delivering on its mandate.

Dutch timber company Wijma is also hoping to supply Guyanese greenheart into the UK under its new certification early in 2017.

It said ekki has been used by some clients as a greenheart alternative in the interim, but it is not available in the same dimensions. Wijma UK says it’s also committed to encouraging use of lesser known sustainable species and is trialling sea defences in Bournemouth made from basralocus, also called angelique.

It said private sector customers are reluctant to use lesser known species unless they can see them used elsewhere.