Luncheon pronounces on proposed International Biodiversity Centre
THE International Centre of Excellence for Biodiversity, the establishment of which has been proposed by His Excellency President Bharrat Jagdeo, is intended to be another foray into a field that materially contributes to Guyana’s development. Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon, made this pronouncement on Wednesday last at his regular post-Cabinet news conference at the Office of the President.
He explained, “Equally important are innovation and commercialization of our bio-diversity potential in many areas such as research… there is a minefield of different technologies which, if mastered, could make biodiversity and its application another leading area for economic development, and we need to pursue that.”
According to Dr. Luncheon, the centre was conceptualized in the context of the elaboration of the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS).
He noted too, that the importance attached to bio-diversity is historically captured in the Environmental Protection Act, and the country’s adherence to the Convention on Biological Diversity and achieving the obligations and provisions of the conventions.
“All of that was brought to the fore with our pronouncements during the LCDS, specifically the creation of a Biodiversity Centre of Excellence,” the HPS stated.
Continuing, he pointed out that the general interest in the establishment of such a centre was also shared by Guyanese on the whole, particularly those involved in bio-diversity, donors and academics.
As to the funding for such an initiative, Dr Luncheon said, “We attracted funding from Central Government, the World Bank and from the Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund (GRIF).
The GRIF is the financial mechanism for  ongoing cooperation on climate change between Guyana and Norway. Norway will pay for Guyana’s performance on limiting greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and for progress made against governance-related indicators. Guyana will invest the payments it receives, and any income earned on them, in its LCDS.

Despite existing determinants to be addressed, Dr. Luncheon noted that the overall attitude to bio-diversity would override them and “lock us in to what is being created.”
“It is not something that will be an academic, sterile centre; this is intended to be another foray into a field that materially contributes to Guyana’s development,” he pronounced.
The Cabinet Secretary emphasized that, as we move forward with this initiative, the result will ensure government concerns and important aspects of the overall vision will be realized.
President Bharrat Jagdeo, early in April, made two significant commitments to the education sector; one was the launch of the new Education Television Broadcasting Service (ETBS) and the other was a commitment of some US$11M for an International Centre of Excellence for Biodiversity at the University of Guyana (UG).
The investment in a focused Centre for Biodiversity has been lauded by the education sector, environmental and even business sector stakeholders – especially in light of the worsening realities of the climate change phenomenon.