This thesis describes and analyzes the many inconsistencies or "slippages" between the prescriptions set down in official forestry policies, laws, regulations, and procedures, and the allocation and administration of forestry concessions in the Guiana Shield country of Guyana. It traces the evolution of government from the colonial period to the authoritarian ethnic politics prevailing since Independence. It shows that coastal-based politicians have used their control of State Forests in the hinterland to further political party and personal ends. It documents how the neglect of the national policies on sustainable development has led to forest degradation and poorer livelihoods for forest-dependent peoples, and less revenue for the public purse.

The thesis describes the changes in the system of concession allocation of the State Forests from a mixture of national small-scale and large-scale holdings until 1991, to monopoly control by four Asian loggers of long-term concessions in 2008, which make up four-fifths of concession area. It documents the evolution in logging practices from small-scale Guyanese contract workers, through increasing capitalization and mechanization, to harvesting dominated by imported Asian workers selectively logging the hard and heavy species for export. It describes the niches occupied by the national small-scale sector that is consigned to the poorest forestlands, criminalized unfairly as the perpetrators of illegal logging, while it pays a disproportionate share of taxes and fees and supplies the bulk of national demands for lumber.

The thesis shows how successive externally funded projects have provided technical support, which has been largely ignored. The thesis demonstrates that Guyana's forests could be a valuable and sustained source of raw material for local industrial value-addition, employment, skills development, and government revenue. It argues that regulatory capture both explains Asian corporate control of the forestry sector, and their protection from government field monitoring and prosecution.

This thesis considers the evidence for and implications of poor governance and corruption at all scales in forestry concessions. It documents the repercussions that followed from civil society exposures of unsustainable and illegal forestry practices, and suggests some policy prescriptions for changing course.