Georgetown, GINA, April 9, 2010
Minister of Finance Dr Ashni Singh and German Ambassador to Guyana Ernest Martens yesterday signed an additional agreement for financial cooperation on tropical forest protection. The agreement signed in the Credentials Room at the Office of the President will make an additional five million Euros (G$1.36B) available to fund the protection of one of the most important ecosystems of the world.

This second agreement takes Germany’s financial support for Guyana’s tropical rainforest up to 8.1 million Euros (G$2.2B)
Existing protected areas, as well as securing the establishment of new protected areas, will be the initiatives under which the funds will be directed.
The project is part of Germany’s support to the fight against climate change in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Region with which Germany has had long-lasting cooperation in a number of programmes and projects.
Among them are those that promote the Caribbean Renewable Energy Development Programme (CREDP) which started in 2004 with a 6.75 million Euro German Government fund and a five million Euro to mitigate the effects of climate change on coastal areas in the Caribbean.
The Finance Minister, in his remarks at the signing, spoke of the ‘excellent bilateral relations between Germany and Guyana’ which dates back to Guyana’s independence.
“Certainly over the decades of our formal bilateral relationship, this connection between our two countries manifested itself in a number of development programmes,” Minister Singh said.

With regard to tropical forest protection, Minister Singh considers the Guyana/Germany agreement a timely undertaking that supports Guyana’s revolutionary Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) which embraces forest resource protection to accelerate economic development.
“Any support that we can have, either at the level of advocacy or indeed, material support in implementing programmes along the lines of the Low Carbon Development Strategy, any such support is much appreciated,” Minister Singh said.
Germany is fully aware of the important role which Guyana’s 15 million hectares of rainforests play, and Ambassador Martens said yesterday’s agreement is a further step in the continuation of projects to protect forest reserves. He said the world is now seeing the importance of forest preservation.
President Jagdeo, who has been a pioneer of the LCDS and a champion for climate change at the international level, was commended for his efforts by the Ambassador who alluded to his prominent role at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Copenhagen.
The Ambassador also made reference to the fruitful and unhindered relationship between Guyana and Germany which, he assured, will continue in the future.