A GINA Feature
Part Two

Guyana has over 15 million hectares of pristine rainforests that can be committed to the climate change fight.

How can Guyana help fight climate change?
Trees and plants are critical factors in stabilizing climate. They help remove heat-trapping carbon dioxide gas from the air by storing it in their leaves, trunk and, roots and also in the soil.

However when trees and plants are destroyed, this stored carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere, where it contributes to global warming and climate change. In fact, deforestation and land use change contribute approximately 20 to 25 percent of the carbon emissions that cause climate change.

Every year, 20 million hectares of rainforest (an area the size of England, Wales and Scotland combined) are cut down, releasing millions of tons of carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

Guyana has over 15 million hectares of near pristine rainforests, which if left standing, can contribute significantly to removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it.

Dedicating Guyana’s forests to fighting climate change – what would it cost?

Guyana’s pristine forests are its most valuable asset.  The majority of the 15 million hectares is suitable for timber extraction.  Forest lands can also be used for post-harvest agriculture, and significant mineral deposits also exist below its surface.

The value that can be gained from this asset if it is exploited has been estimated at US$580M ($116B) per annum.

Guyana’s 2009 National Budget was $128.9B, therefore, exploiting Guyana’s forests can add significantly to the National Budget, which would benefit all Guyanese.

However, while exploiting its forests is the economically rational step for Guyana, it would have significant negative consequences for the world. The deforestation that would accompany this development path would reduce the critical environmental services that Guyana’s forests provide to the world – such as bio-diversity, water regulation and carbon sequestration.  Do we destroy the forest to get development revenue?  Do we preserve the forest and forego development?

It is to overcome this catch-22 situation that the Low-Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) was developed.

The LCDS

Guyana can raise funds for development by cutting down its forests but doing that would exacerbate climate change.

Government believes that Guyana can protect and maintain its forests in the effort to reduce global carbon emissions, and at the same time, attract resources for the country to grow and develop. In order to do this effectively in the long-term, Guyana needs a clear vision and a plan as to how to get there. This vision and plan is called the Low-Carbon Development Strategy that encapsulates three main components:

1. Investment in low carbon economic infrastructure – This will include the development of hydropower to reduce reliance on petroleum-based fuels, the upgrading of our sea defences to protect against current and future impacts of sea level rise, improved roads, drainage and irrigation to unused, non-forested lands such as the Canje River lands and the intermediate savannahs, and improved hi-tech telecommunication facilities to generate development of low-carbon businesses such as call centers.

2. Investment and employment in low carbon economic sectors – This will target investment in commercial production of fruits and vegetables, particularly in non-forested areas such as the intermediate savannahs; aquaculture and the export of fresh and frozen seafood; sustainable forestry utilizing the high internationally accepted standards of sustainable yield harvesting; and wood processing to produce high value products.

3. Investment in communities and human capital – This will ensure that the indigenous and other hinterland communities, as well as other citizens including the urban poor, will have expanded access to improved social services such as health, education/vocational training, low carbon electricity and clean water, and employment that does not threaten the sustainability of the forest resources.

Funding for the LCDS

Inside a hydro-power plant – one of the investment opportunities that would be pursued uder the LCDS.

The service that Guyana’s standing forests provide, while valuable, does not earn the country any revenue.

Guyana, along with other forest countries, is working within the United Nations Climate Change Convention to create a new global agreement to allow the sale of forest carbon credits.

The current climate change agreement which was signed in 1997, the Kyoto Protocol, does not offer any incentives for avoided deforestation and forest degradation. However, this Protocol ends in 2012 and a new agreement is expected in Copenhagen in December.

Under the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) initiative, Guyana has been working assiduously to ensure that avoided deforestation is included in this new agreement, which will lead to the establishment of a forest carbon trading market from which the country can generate funds for leaving its forests standing.

However, this would not come into place until 2012 or after. Between now and 2012, Guyana and Norway are working to demonstrate how this strategy can work. This can serve as an example for other countries to follow.

When the forest carbon market is fully functional, it is expected that large companies would be injecting finances into the emissions trading schemes.

In the initial phase, it can be expected that financing would be bilateral and fund based, and in the full REDD phase, payments would be made through the forest carbon market.

Benefits for Guyanese

Guyana is working within the United National Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to develop a market from forest carbon credits.

The revenue that comes from carbon credits is expected to exceed what Guyana currently derives from logging and other extractive uses of the forest. Such increased revenue can be used for providing better hospitals and health care, schools, and education standards. Electricity from hydro-power (the Amaila Falls project) will be much cheaper to consumers, and will allow for more industries, jobs and an overall better quality of life for all.

The anticipated revenue will also allow Government to improve the sea defences and drainage and irrigation systems and build better roads to new areas of agriculture production such as the intermediate savannahs and the Rupununi area and will ensure greater food security.

The investment in agriculture will focus on the development of the fruits and vegetables sector, aquaculture, the export of fresh and frozen seafood, and other low-carbon agriculture alternatives.

Investment will also be made to upgrade Guyana’s information communication technology infrastructure to spawn industries in e-business, software development, call centre facilities and data management, which would provide high-paying jobs for thousands of young Guyanese. (GINA)