I observe most of Neil Marks work is cut and paste, so not much can be assumed as his work. The caption, LCDS based on ‘Junk Economics’  however led me to a depth of research and my findings have brought me to conclude that in my opinion this work is of another organisation trying to downplay the progressive efforts of a developing country.
I wonder if Neil did any ground work on Rainforest Foundation UK. The rule is at least you must have three sources. Comparing UK’s forest cover of merely approximately 2.4 million hectares to Guyana’s 15 million hectares leaves one to wonder who is more in control and authority to protect forests and predict which course of development is best for peoples living in forested countries.
I am stunned at the formula Simon Counsell used to arrive at his so called ‘Junk Economics’ his methodology is wanting in many respects. Neil should have been the first to get up and make this point known to the group. He should be proud of coming from a forested country and say to the group that monies derived from forests is not ‘Junk’ it is real, living cash and show images of green cash standing, (maybe he just shook his head in agreement).
Neil should be a good ambassador and invite Simon Counsell of Rainforest Foundation UK to visit Guyana and see the beauty of forests – ‘real green money.’
I charged earlier that the work of Neil is mostly cut and paste in the true sense of this report – http://www.rainforestfoundationuk.org/McRedd_News – from which he got his text. I challenge him to point Guyana’s LCDS (Low Carbon Development Strategy) as based on ‘Junk Economics’. I was anxious to see if at the conclusion of my reading Neil’s article I would have seen him saying that Guyana needed to make Rainforest Foundation UK aware of our development plans and that our ambitions are not based on a group’s fictitious concepts, it did not materialize.
Neil emphasizes on the point that Rainforest Foundation UK has been in this business since 1989 but there is no tangible proof that from 1989 – 2010 the foundation has been really making an impact in the global forestry sector. Brazil, one of the world’s largest deforesters until to about the time of addressing Climate Change 2009, is now in 2010 pointing to gains they have made in addressing deforestation. http://www.mongabay.com/brazil.html – Brazil’s Amazon Deforestation rate falls to lowest on record and sees our LCDS as a giant step towards addressing Climate Change.
Guyana’s forestry regulations have been getting stronger and stronger so the likely weakening element mentioned in the article does not exist.
Many have tried to downplay LCDS but through it all LCDS has gained strength and even after Cancun it will get stronger. So, the huff and puff by Rainforest Foundation UK fits into a wagon of other foundations and groups shooting venom at the LCDS and being benefactors of being compensated for services provided by our forests. Even Prime Minister David Cameron of the UK is behind this strategy and supports it, so who is Simon Counsell to say that our process was flawed.   
If an idea is put to the challenge and the argument is that it needs to be changed or discarded, alternatives must be tabled, Rainforest Foundation UK has none and clearly no one will divert from a working strategy in favor of a non-existent concept.