Minister Persaud
AGRICULTURE Minister Robert Persaud said, Monday that, the draft Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) seeks to help Guyana take care of its own needs.
Speaking at an LCDS consultation, organised by Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) and Forest Products Association (FPA) in Regency Suites Hotel, on Hadfield Street, Georgetown, he offered the explanation against the backdrop of the uncertain global economic environment.
Mr. Persaud said this situation has caused this country to look at new sectors and opportunities for making its economy more resilient and less dependent on two or three industries.
He said the hurting economic circumstances have caused a drastic reduction in flows of development assistance as the international community grapples with its own demands, needs and concerns.
How long do we want to be with our hats and our caps in hand seeking and begging for money?” Persaud asked, noting that the LCDS aims to address this, among other situations.
He said Guyana may or may not succeed in the quest but is hoping to use the bilateral arrangement with the Norwegian Government and other engagements to show the world, at Copenhagen, Denmark, the need to fit, within the post-Kyoto framework, compensation for avoided deforestation.
According to him, the forestry sector garners US$60M per annum but he said, based on economic models, that annual earning, if converted for other purposes in line with sustainable forestry management, can earn Guyana about US$580M.
LESS VULNERABLE
Persaud maintained that the draft LCDS is also about creating a better life for Guyanese and making them less vulnerable.
He said those are overarching objectives of the LCDS, which has three main components, namely investment in low carbon economic infrastructure, investment and employment in low carbon economic sectors and investment in communities and human capital.
Asked why such a strategy now, Persaud explained that it would have been difficult to get international attention four or five years ago, because some big global powers were questioning whether climate change is real.
In the local context, he said the timing is right, as Guyana has, over the years, demonstrated that it is a consistent player in sustainable forest management.
The LCDS is not something about the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) or President Bharrat Jagdeo but all Guyana, Minister Persaud told the forum Senior FPA official, Mr. Mohindra Chand, presenting his organisation’s preliminary outlook on the draft LCDS, lauded its bold and unprecedented proposals.
He said, among the FPA expectations are more facilitating and less monitoring during the embryonic stages of the LCDS, more emphasis on understanding why certain breaches regularly occur and finding amicable solutions, more timely inspections, greater control, regulation and general co-existence between mining and forestry activities, completion of the National Land Use Plan, revision of the Code of Practice for timber harvesting through meaningful consultations and engagements, open revisions of forestry management practices and greater recognition of economic and social values of the forestry sector and economic impacts of regulatory practices.
SOME CONSTRAINTS
Chand said some of the constraints envisaged with the strategy, include:
* lack of proper cost and benefit analysis of imposing stricter control and international standards on logging operations;
* sustainable forest management applications over the years have failed to address the economic factors;
* forest procedures and regulations are seen as already too rigid, so, to apply more stringent procedures will result in increased conflict and create negative economic impacts and
* its failure to acknowledge the low population pressure which is favourable for avoided deforestation.
Persaud, responding to some more queries from the floor, said the GFC has always placed emphasis on best international practices and remains committed to continue.
He said Amerindians were given the option to opt in or out of the process, because their lands are privately owned and their rights are embodied in the Amerindian Act.
Persaud said the issue with finding a balance between forestry and mining has to be addressed with or without an LCDS and the laws relating to those two sectors will be revised.
