I CALL readers’ attention to the following: “But there was still no real protected area network.” To resolve this, Mittermeier said President Jagdeo again showed his leadership. In June 2011,  Parliament passed the National Protected Areas Act, and in October they signed into law, the first two parks under this act, the magnificent 611,000- hectare (1.5 million acre) Kanuku Mountains Protected Area in the interior of the country, and the 125,000- hectare ( 309,000- acre) Shell Beach Protected Area along the coast, one of the most important sea turtle nesting beaches in the Americas.
So President Jagdeo, with these protected areas (created in the final months of his presidency), cemented his legacy and his place in history.
Now I am referring here to the fact that the CI (Conservation International) chief has just hailed  Jagdeo as a forest champion.
So the former president, Bharat Jagdeo, is still very much in the ‘thick of things.’ He is now being lauded for a legacy that he has bequeathed to all Guyana, and one that the world is catching unto.
The report is that Conservation International President, Russell Mittermeier, has singled out Bharrat Jagdeo as a forest champion. This is because, under Jagdeo’s leadership, Guyana has now become a global leader. This encomium relates to the fact that Jagdeo was able to call attention to the incredible importance, of tropical forests, in the global battle to mitigate climate change.
In his article, in the ‘Huffington Post’, Mittermeier paid great tribute to Jagdeo, saying that because of him, there is so much concern in the global arena in this area.
A quote emphasises the point most profoundly:
“Conservation International (CI) has had programmes in Guyana …since 1991, and…first met with President Jagdeo, shortly after he took office in 1999. He was only 35 at the time, but (I was) impressed from the first moment, with his intellect, his charm, and his willingness to listen and learn. (Thus) over the next few years, (I) developed a real friendship (with him), and I could call him on his personal line, any time the need arose – a rare thing for a Head of State these days,” the CI head said.
Well thank God for this association.
Mittermeier, in October 2006, did pay another visit to President Jagdeo, and this one that turned out to be very important for Guyana and the world at large. To sum up: Guyana has already teamed up with Norway and Germany, and great dividends have been coming from these associations. Will this stop with Jagdeo’s tenure already gone? I think not.
“We have high hopes that his successor, President Donald Ramotar, who just took office last month, will carry this forward, and continue Guyana’s leadership role among the forest-rich countries of the world,” the optimistic words from Mittermeier.  So even though the presidency has changed, the programmes are continuing, and this kind of practice works well for development.