As Heritage Month begins…
PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo has reiterated that the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) is a development strategy before anything else and can help accelerate development of this country, including the indigenous communities.

He was addressing the audience at the start of Amerindian Heritage Month 2009 celebrations on Tuesday, under the theme ‘Securing Our Livelihood while Sustaining Our Cultural Diversity’, at the Amerindian Village in the National Exhibition Centre, Sophia, Georgetown.

Outlining some of the developmental plans and programmes for the hinterland, he said: “I see national well-being as very important for us to deliver on all of these things.”

“We have to keep growing our economy. We have to keep solving many of the problems that we face at the national level, having a vision for the future, getting our productive sector to be much more competitive globally and carving out a place in this competitive world, a world that, often, does not look out for small countries.”

The Head of State continued: “This is why I see the LCDS as very important for the future too.”

He said the money earned from the trade in forest carbon can help to accelerate development.

“It can catapult us forward…we don’t have to take the evolutionary path. We can, in a revolutionary manner, move our country forward quickly,” President Jagdeo maintained.

He said the LCDS is not the ultimate document.

“It just sets out broad outlines as to where our country will go. There are several other documents that are supportive of it that go into greater details as to how we will get there and I hope that you read those too. They show the opportunity that we have now because of climate change,” President Jagdeo said.

According to him: “It is an opportunity, I say, because it offers us the possibility of earning by preserving our forests. But it is also a big threat to our development if not properly handled.”

ADAPTATION
He disclosed that the adaptation needs just along the coast have been calculated at over a US$1B, excluding the river defences to be built or the droughts or floods that people in the hinterland face and the severe hardship that will continue to be faced from major weather variability.

I hope that all of us will get involved. I have made it clear that the model is going to be built, again based on consultations and, like I said before, nothing will be imposed on any Amerindian community or your lands,” Mr. Jagdeo assured.

He said: “We made sure that, when we constructed the model, we excluded indigenous peoples lands and we excluded 10 per cent of our territory with the highest conservation value.”

President Jagdeo said he has made it clear to every toshao that, regardless of whether they opt in or not, their communities will benefit from whatever is compensated for, through the sale of forest carbon.

?nd if they opt in voluntarily and the community has to make that decision not the Government, every cent earned from the sale of forest carbon will go back to indigenous people and their development.

?ll in keeping with what I said at the very beginning about giving communities choices, not imposing any particular view,” the President stated.

Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Mrs. Pauline Sukhai said there is positive acceptance of the LCDS.

She said it was expressed at the National Toshaos Council (NTC) General Meeting and qualified at the Executive Meeting that the Amerindians have to continue caring for their environment because, to them, land and forests are their life.

?xpressively, the Amerindians recognise that Government has provided them the opportunity to make their own voluntary consent to opt in and have frequently attested to advance the dialogue within their communities,” Sukhai said.