The draft Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) is not intended to harm any sector and will affect forestry operations, but positively.

Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud yesterday gave this assurance to stakeholders at a consultation on the LCDS held at the Regency Suites Hotel on Hadfield Street, Georgetown.

Persaud told the gathering of forest producers, saw millers and other stakeholders at the occasion organised by the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) and the Forestry Products Association (PFA) that the strategy will allow them to further streamline their operations.

“The strategy is not about closing down concessions, the strategy is not about ending community forestry organisations and bodies; the strategy is not about slowing down the path or the efforts we are making in terms of value added and allowing the wood sector to grow.

“In fact, the strategy is about stimulating those activities, from a perspective that we want to maintain the highest level of sustainable activities, both from an environmental and economic standpoint,” he explained.

The minister said if operators are complying with the GFC code of practice and the necessary regulations, they will have no difficulty.

These, he emphasised, are requirements they are expected to honour with or without the LCDS.

Persaud said the strategy is not about making life difficult for forestry operators, and noted many large players have been having difficulty in obtaining Forestry Stewardship Certification (FSC) because of their failure to meet certain standards.

But he expressed confidence that at the end of the consultation, and within the framework of the LCDS, it will be easier for many of these companies to pass the requirements for FSC.

On that point, he encouraged stakeholders to share their views on the LCDS, noting the process will help the Government to help the citizenry to understand its importance in the local and international context.

Persaud, whose portfolio includes forestry, said given the wide framework of the strategy, the concentration is not only on ensuring the forestry sector deal with its shortcomings, but also look at the problems with miners.

The LCDS also seeks to garner resources for infrastructural development, and improve sustainable forestry management arrangement, which will allow local companies and wood products to enjoy any international specification.

“It is an opportunity for us to update and upgrade ourselves, from the regulatory monitoring standpoint, as well as from you stakeholders,” the minister underlined.

Responding to a question on what if Guyana does not succeed in getting the international community to buy into the LCDS, Persaud said the country’s resolve on insisting sustainable forest management will not change.

He said the strategy is a model Guyana wants to table to the international community.

Guyana, he contended, has a consistent track record on sustainable forestry management, and offers tremendous services in mitigating climate change, but remains vulnerable to the latter.

He said Guyana, like other countries, could have taken another road, converting forested areas for other productive activity; but with the support of its international partners, had developed a robust model to show how much opportunities it is foregoing to practice sustainable forest management.

Persaud added, Guyana will only buy into a development with the right incentives, based on an accessible market base mechanism, whereby these compensation arrangements can be developed.

“This is a country with unique challenges, which is willing to step-up to the plate and offer to the global community an asset, an asset it needs very much in terms of combating climate change.

“And that is what the strategy is about,” he underscored.

GFC Commissioner, Mr. James Singh, and FPA representatives Mr. Khalawan and Mr. Mohinder Chand also spoke at the consultation.