President returns to much fanfare at CJIA
– reaffirms that his achievement reflects long standing efforts of Guyanese
Arriving on an Air Force Brasilia flight from neighbouring Brazil yesterday, President Bharrat Jagdeo, recipient of the United Nations Environmental Programme Champion of the Earth award, returned to a ‘red carpet,’ ceremonial welcome at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA).
Receiving the President with warm embraces and words of congratulations at the arrival lounge of the CJIA were Prime Minister Samuel Hinds and Cabinet colleagues.
The Guyana Police Force band played patriotic songs, while the sound of tassa and African drums reverberated as the President and team proceeded into the VIP section of the arrival lounge.
A large welcoming banner captioned ‘Champion of the Earth’ bore an excerpt from his acceptance speech in Seoul, Korea, which reads “I interpret it as an endorsement of the people of Guyana’s long-standing efforts to help change the way the world values sacred natural resources.”
As the President reached the parking lot, a much bigger crowd that was part of the surprise ceremonial welcome waited, with loud cheers, waving the Guyana flag proudly.
The event climaxed with a motorcade procession from the CJIA to Georgetown. Along the way children from various schools along the East Bank of Demerara came out waving in a show of patriotic gratitude.
The Prime Minister said that the award is an achievement which follows in the footsteps of former President Cheddi Jagan’s and his visionary New Human Global Order, and the late President Desmond Hoyte who granted Iwokrama as a place for study of commonwealth forests.
The recognition which Time Magazine gave President Jagdeo as a ‘Hero of the Environment’ was also expressed by those who paid tribute.
The Head of State, in his remarks, stressed the point he made during his acceptance speech, that the award is not a personal achievement, but rather it is an award in recognition of the efforts of all Guyanese.
“This is an award in recognition of all of our people to be bold enough to lead the way in this very groundbreaking manner, to a solution for a world that could be environmentally sound,” President Jagdeo said.
Guyana’s effort is compiled in a model called the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) which the President said was built on several years of hard work, not by any single individual, but by all Guyanese.
A significant degree of the President’s credit went to Guyana’s indigenous people who have been the gatekeepers of the country’s forests and have a special role to play in resource management.
“What we are talking about here is essentially how we manage natural resources; and for centuries indigenous people have been the guardians of the forest and the tremendous biodiversity not just here in Guyana, but right across Latin America and the Caribbean,” President Jagdeo said.
While in many other countries the role of the indigenous people as keepers of the forests has been taken away by those who uncaringly encroach on their lands, the President said that the Guyana Government, since its ascension into Office in 1992, has resolved that Amerindians will have a special place in the nation, their rights will be protected, and they will continue to be an integral part of policy formulation and leadership in nation-building.
Guyana’s LCDS has gained worldwide attention and has placed the country on a pedestal, rising far above some of the most developed countries which, the President said, is doing the least to alter climate change.
According to President Jagdeo, Government has been pursuing efforts to change the way the rest of the world views resources that provide valuable services to them, particularly the acceptance by the developed countries that financial credits must be awarded to countries with such resources.
Guyana made the dream a reality for developed and developing countries to work together to implement a national scale model of how forests can be deployed to address climate change and national development.
This reality came in November, 2009, with the signing of the Guyana/Norway agreement which caters for up to US$250M by 2015 for avoided deforestation; but the President said yesterday that if Guyana’s advocacy is successful, the country could get as much as US$500M for the preservation of forests and its biodiversity.
“That’s more in a net sense than we earn in rice, sugar, bauxite, gold and forest exports,” President Jagdeo said.
Such financial resources, the President said, could be dedicated to investments in education, hydro-electricity and Information Communication Technology (ICT) related services that have the potential to generate about 25,000 jobs this year. (GINA)