In February 2011 we went to Suriname to visit the village of Gododrai (what is left of it) to see whether we could start a Sustainable Timber Extraction project. We incorporated a company and that company signed a contract with the village council of Gododrai, where we would be able to exploit their concession provided we cut trees for them, saw them into planks and rebuilt the village.
After a long 9 months where we imported a skidder from the US, purchased a “korjaal” and outboard engine, chainsaws, and all other equipment to start the project, we finally transported the first trees to Paramaribo in October.
Under the terms of the concession, we are allowed to cut no more than 25m3 per ha per 20 year cycle. This is good for the forest since the canopy is broken up and this allows rain and sunshine to germinate the seeds on the forest floor, and to reach trees and plants.
On our first transport we managed to move 53 logs of which 40 were sold to a sawmill and 13 are being cut into planks for the village.
We aim to have 3 to four transports a month from November onwards and will hopefully be able to start the re-construction of houses in Q1 of 2012.
