By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

South Abaco MP, Edison Key, yesterday confirmed his son is a principal in the company seeking an Andros timber harvesting license, saying governments were “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” in approving foreign joint ventures.

Speaking with Tribune Business outside the House of Assembly yesterday, the ex-Bahamas Agriculture and Industrial Corporation (BAIC) chairman said he was not involved “whatsoever” with Caribbean Global Timber Ltd.

Yet he then sought to justify the company’s proposed project, which would involve timber harvesting and resin extraction from pine trees on 4,500 acres of Crown Land in the San Andros area.

“Andros and Abaco are two main islands with pine; a tremendous amount of pine forest. The pine in most of these ares are very thick,” Mr Key said.

“They grow very tall out; they do not size up. They’re jammed up. Anything  that could help to reduce that by cutting down some of the pine and allowing the rest of it to grow, I don’t see anything wrong with it.  The pine needs thinning out; it’s too thick.

“If you go to Andros there’s thousands of acres of pine just growing tall and not sizing up. They need that sunlight to come in and size up.”

Henry Key is listed as vice-president and director of Caribbean Global Timber Ltd. Other directors are Yanghua Liao (president and director); Qiu Zhao Liao (assistant treasurer and director); Leanne Liu (director and secretary); and He Huilan (director and treasurer).

“Henry Key is my son but I’m not in any operations whatsoever. It doesn’t involve me whatsoever,” Mr Key told Tribune Business.      

“There is nothing in this country, anything that any foreign entity gets involved with, that you don’t  get opposition to it. You’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”

Mr Key was a long-time Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) politician and senator, but he switched to the FNM during the 2002-2007 Christie administration, and has gone on to successfully take the south Abaco seat for the latter party in the past two elections.

He has, though, maintained cordial relations with his former PLP colleagues during their exchanges in the House of Assembly.

Kenred Dorsett, minister of the environment and housing, yesterday said the proposed five-year license had yet to be issued to Caribbean Global Timber Ltd some 15 months after the project was ‘approved in principle’.

This was because the company had yet to meet the conditions set by the Christie administration.

Seeking to refute any suggestion that the Government was again ‘selling out’ the Bahamas to China, given the names of Caribbean Global Timber Ltd’s directors, and in the wake of the public furore surrounding the $2.1 billion agriculture/fisheries investment controversy, Mr Dorsett said Caribbean Global Timber Ltd’s principals included Bahamian and American citizens.

He added that they had “sought additional assistance” from a Chinese industrial and commercial investment company, and argued that it was therefore “misleading” to say the Government had agreed a ‘deal’ with investors from that country.

Mr Dorsett thus sought to downplay and minimise any Chinese connection, portraying their involvement with Caribbean Global Timber Ltd as more a partnership arrangement.

He also produced copies of the only existing timber harvest license in the Bahamas, which was granted to Rob Roman, the Canadian principal of Lindar Industries, by the former Ingraham administration in 2011 for Abaco.

Mr Dorsett’s production of the Lindar Industries license was designed to demonstrate that Caribbean Global Timber Ltd was not receiving any ‘special favours’, as the land acreage involved in both projects is similar.

The two companies’ respective ‘approvals in principle’ are also similar, with the one for Caribbean Global Timber Ltd likely based to some extent on the requirements for Lindar Industries.

Mr Dorsett said the land involved in the Lindar Industries project was greater, consisting 5,194 acres in Abaco’s Wilson City area, and 1,552 acres in Norman’s Castle.

The Minister then suggested that the Caribbean Global Timber Ltd proposal was no secret, saying: “I have spoken publicly on the issue of resin tapping and selective harvesting on many occasions as the minister responsible for Forestry.

“In 2015, my ministry published a document called ‘Fulfilling the Charter’, where on page 4 it states “there is potential for resin tapping to evolve on the island of Andros. Presently, the Government is considering a proposal made by a company that would like to harvest resin from trees on the island of Andros for export”.

Mr Dorsett said the Caribbean Global Timber Ltd project, if it went ahead, would complement the Lindar Industries effort and enable the Government’s Forestry Unit to manage a natural Bahamian resource “in an environmentally sustainable way”.

He added: Under any forestry licence, trees are selected by the Forestry Unit to be utilised for resin and/or timber extraction. The systematic removal of selections will enable trees with the greatest potential to grow in size, and have space to do so.

“All forestry resources remain vested in the Government of the Bahamas. Land is neither granted nor leased. Licences are issued only for the removal of selected trees and for the sustainable use of the resource. Royalty fees are paid to the Government for such activity.”