FROM former United States President Bill Clinton’s Foundation, to beauties in the Miss Guyana Universe pageant, this country’s push for a low carbon development strategy is gaining more traction.

Minister Sukhai addressing Mabaruma residents

The initiative has also been approved for financial support from the World Bank, thereby buttressing its chances of international recognition and acceptance.

President Bharrat Jagdeo last week earned warm praise from Clinton Foundation climate change consultant, Jan Hartke and colleagues for his leadership on climate change.

“The world is looking for a great example somewhere, and wonderfully enough, President Jagdeo’s leadership has quite honestly inspired people around the world. And you really need leadership on something like this, if we are able to get progress in Copenhagen,” he said while on a visit here.

“He will be able to show how other countries can follow the emergent Guyana model,” Hartke told reporters after he and other Clinton Foundation officials met the President at his official State House residence in Georgetown.

Hartke, Dr  Donald Jim Baker, Director of the Global Carbon Measurement Programme, and Jennifer Rockwitz, Country Coordinator, Guyana, met the President to discuss Guyana’s Low-Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) among other issues.

After the meeting, Hartke said the LCDS is a model that will help save the forests, as well as help Guyanese socially, economically and environmentally.

He feels the strategy can bring finances to Guyana, and be a model of development that can make this country a leader internationally, and a demonstration showplace at Copenhagen.  

Baker noted that the LCDS not only deals with forestry and climate change, but also with other development challenges countries like Guyana face, adding that the model is unique and thought-provoking.

“Guyana is the first and the leader in putting together this LCDS that will have a huge impact on other developing countries, and even on developed countries,” he told reporters.

Hartke also said that the Clinton Foundation is looking to work with the Guyana Government on key aspects of the LCDS.

The Clinton Foundation was established by former President Bill Clinton, with the stated mission to “strengthen the capacity of people throughout the world to meet the challenges of global interdependence.”

The Clinton Foundation, along with the Mc Kinsey Group, has been working with the Office of the President since 2008, and developed the avoided deforestation model, which sets the basis for the LCDS.

Two weeks following the launch of the LCDS, at the third meeting of the Participants’ Committee (PC) of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) in Montreaux, Switzerland on June 15-18, the Word Bank approved Guyana’s Readiness Plan (R-Plan).

The PC is the governing body of the FCPF, and is made up of both donor and developing countries’ representatives.

A Mabaruma resident makes his contribution

The FCPF was created in 2007 at the Bali Climate Summit as a mechanism to support country readiness for the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) programme, a topic currently under negotiation at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). If REDD schemes are approved at the climate change negotiations in Copenhagen in December, REDD countries would theoretically be eligible for payments from the industrialised countries to support forest conservation and avoided deforestation.

POLITICAL PRESSURE WINS
At the meeting, there was significant debate within the PC, but the political pressure to move the process forward won the day. Also approved was the R-Plan for Panama, with approval pending for Indonesia.

R-Plan grants amount to a maximum of US$3.6 million, which includes a $200,000 grant which can be provided up front to support R-Plan development.   

Both donor and REDD country representatives on the PC expressed concern that if the committee didn’t approve the plans now, there would be little progress to show in Copenhagen, undercutting the ability of nations advocating UNFCCC adoption of REDD to point to real on- the-ground advances.

In order to help the PC make a decision on whether to approve an R-Plan, the World Bank has assembled a Technical Advisory Panel (or TAP) of experts on forest issues, the recipient country, and at least one expert on indigenous issues, for each R-Plan.

Weak governance of forests is an issue in the majority of REDD countries. However, Guyana and Panama are among those with relatively strong institutional frameworks.

The approval of the R-Plans also places the spotlight on the governments of Guyana, Panama and Indonesia, which, as the first countries to formally begin REDD readiness under the auspices of the World Bank, will be carefully scrutinised.  The experiences of these pilot countries will be used to assess whether the FCPF process is capable of facilitating sustained and effective engagement with civil society and indigenous peoples, and of producing high quality plans for reducing deforestation that are credible both nationally and internationally.

The sub-national consultations continued last week in Region One (Barima/Waini) with teams headed by Amerindian Affairs Minister, Ms Pauline Sukhai and Minister of Agriculture, Mr Robert Persaud. The teams included Minister of Finance, Dr Ashni Singh, Foreign Affairs Minister, Ms Carolyn Rodrigues-Birket, Mr Shyam Nokta, Mr Andrew Bishop, Ms Gitanjali Chandarpal, Ms Joycelyn Dow [IIED], Mr Peter Persaud [TAAMOG], Mr Ashton Simon [NADF], and Mr David James.

In Region One, more than 500 persons attended the consultations, which were held at Mabaruma, Port Kaituma and Santa Rosa, while in Region Two (Pomeroon/Supenaam), at Anna Regina, there were over 200 persons in attendance. At all the meetings, those who spoke were generally in support of the LCDS. While several Toshaus indicated that they did not have sufficient time to discuss the LCDS with their communities, they undertook to do so over the remaining period for the consultations.

Among some of the key questions which emerged were how benefits will be distributed from the LCDS; possible implications for forestry, mining and agriculture; and what impact the LCDS would have on people’s way of life and practices.

A number of suggestions were also made, which included that the LCDS be introduced in the school’s curriculum, and that Guyana should begin to implement the LCDS without waiting for finance from the developed countries.

The LCDS, at its core, seeks to foster greater economic development while promoting maintaining sustainable environmental health through the protection and sustainable use of the country’s greatest asset — its tropical forests.

Signalling growing recognition and acceptance of the LCDS as a good move forward, the strategy has been adopted as the platform of several contestants in the Miss Guyana Universe pageant.  

Several contestants, during the question and answer segment of the pageant — broadcast live on NCN TV Wednesday night, showed a firm grasp of the issues at the core of the initiative, which Chairman of the Climate Committee, Mr Shyam Nokta said is an indication that the message is spreading among Guyanese, and that there is increasing interest across the country.

During the outreach last week, Mr Nokta stated that the LCDS is not about “locking away the forest,” but seeking payment for marketing a service that our forests offer to the world while at the same time utilizing our forest resources in a sustainable manner.

THOROUGH REVIEW
He said that as part of the LCDS, there will be a thorough review of the current framework as they relate to land use, forestry and mining, and which would also examine legislation, regulations, guidelines and standards and their implementation as that relates to these practices to ensure improved regulation and compliance of the law.

This, he stated, will call for greater monitoring, using both intrusive on-the-ground methods, as well as utilising state-of-the-art technology. With the funding from the strategy, Guyana will be able to ensure maximum compliance of the new regulations that are expected to be implemented.

Nokta also indicated, however, that this will require close collaboration between operators and regulators, and will also need to be done through a process that will involve awareness, training, and building capacity at both levels to ensure compliance.

The Minister of Amerindian Affairs assured that communities that practise these forms of economic activities will not be asked to discontinue, as the strategy recognises the importance they play in theirs and the country’s economic development.

However, communities that opt in will have to comply with strict regulations to ensure that they are using the forest products in a sustainable manner, she stressed.

In response to how communities will benefit, Minister Rodrigues-Birkett said that while the entire country will benefit from the resources garnered through this strategy through social services and other developmental works, communities that opt in will receive direct benefits, and will therefore have to decide how they will use the money that will be allocated to them.

Minister Persaud addressed concerns about how agriculture would be affected. He assured residents of Region Two (one of the largest agriculture regions) that this will be a focus area of the strategy as it seeks to promote large-scale agriculture by using cleaner technology.

Finance Minister Singh, in response to a question about why the strategy was not developed earlier, explained that the LCDS is timely and visionary, as it brings together facts that are obvious, and which create a method where Guyana can move forward to national development and still protect its valuable resources.

He noted that it is only now that many of the developed countries are paying attention and giving recognition that climate change is occurring.

The sub-national consultations continue this week in Region 10 (Upper Demerara/Berbice), and will be tomorrow at Hururu village and Muritaro village, where consultation teams headed by Prime Minister Sam Hinds and Minister of Finance Singh will be meeting communities in the respective areas to present and discuss the LCDS.

** Feedback and comments on the LCD can be forwarded to the Office of Climate Change at the Office of the President, or the LCDS website; www.lcds.gov.gy <http://www.lcds.gov.gy/> or email info@lcds.gov.gy