By Vanessa Narine
THE overwhelming majority of toshaos at the 2013 National Toshaos Conference passed a resolution reaffirming continued support for the implementation of the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), and also indicated their approval for the Draft Opt In Mechanism Concept Paper.

And at this year’s National Toshaos Conference, Adviser to the President and Head of the Office of Climate Change, Shyam Nokta, on Monday, updated the stakeholder group on the progress with the Opt In mechanisms, which was intended to be used as a guide by Amerindian Villages to arrive at informed decisions with respect to Opting in to the LCDS.
According to him, some Amerindian villages have already indicated their interest in Opting In.

PRELIMINARY WORK STARTED
He said: “While this review process is ongoing by villages, preliminary work has started at a technical level to flesh-out critical issues which would be key to implementing an Opt In Mechanism, such as performance requirements by villages, financial arrangements etc.
“We have started this work recognising the complexity of the Opt In Mechanism and the fact that there is no precedence for us to work with. Indeed we are trying to apply the current national-scale REDD+ model to a village context.”
Nokta noted that before the end of the year a draft Opt In Strategy will be sent to the National Toshaos Council (NTC) and the Multi-Stakeholder Steering Committee for review and consideration, in the interest of indentifying a pilot community to test the Opt In Mechanism.
He said: “As we move forward with the LCDS, an important priority will be to now move to deeper discussion on the Opt In mechanism…we continue to receive views from villages based on their consideration of the Opt In Concept Paper.”
The Climate Change Office Head also addressed a major misconception surrounding the mechanism during his engagement at the NTC 2013. Nokta explained that a village does not have to Opt In to benefit from the LCDS.
“This is not the case as already villages have started to benefit from projects under the LCDS,” he stressed.
The proposed Opt In Mechanism was raised in the May 2010 version of the LCDS and in 2011 an Opt In Concept Paper was considered by stakeholder groups.

Head of the Climate Change Office addressed a major misconception surrounding the Opt In mechanism during his engagement at the NTC 2013.  Nokta explained that a village does not have to Opt In to benefit from the LCDS. “This is not the case as already villages have started to benefit from projects under the LCDS.”

LCDS SUCCESS
According to Nokta, the LCDS has had much success in a relatively short period of time.
He said: “From the inception we recognised we were being bold and innovative and that there would be challenges along the way. We continue to progressively work our way through the many challenges and in so doing we are truly providing inspiration for the world.
“Today, other forest countries, in this region and elsewhere are seeking our input on how we can help them. Our work is helping to influence and shape the international framework on climate change and an agreement on REDD+.
“This puts Guyana out front, and shows that we are capable of leading, as a country, as a Government, and as Amerindian leaders and communities.”
Nokta, however, made clear that there is still much to do.
“If we all work together, we will continue to make the LCDS a success,” he said.

SECOND WAVE OF LCDS PROJECTS
The Head of the Climate Change Office added that this year Guyana has updated the LCDS, taking on board its performance, and experiences and lessons to date, and identified a second wave of LCDS projects.
“We have recently completed one phase of the independent audit for a fourth payment under the Norway partnership and the second phase is expected to be complete by end of 2013,” he said.
Nokta pointed out that it has been four years since the LCDS launch, which set out one of the most ambitious visions in the world for how developing countries could lead in the creation of the new global green economy.
He said: “In the first year of the partnership, we addressed challenges associated with the basics: issues such as getting accurate, scientifically valid data on the size of our forests and deforestation rates. Believe it or not, very few countries have been able to do this. But we addressed these challenges and today Guyana is implementing one of the world’s most advanced forest monitoring, reporting and verification systems. In the first year of the partnership we received US$30 million.
“In the second year, the challenge was about setting up the mechanisms into which Norway’s payments would be made – before we established the Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund (GRIF), a national-scale model for payment for carbon services had never been implemented anywhere in the world. Following a second year of good performance, Guyana was paid our second payment of US$40 million for the climate services our forests had delivered.
“In the third year, even as we continued to put in another consistent performance under the model, earning US$45 million, the issues of disbursing money into specific LCDS projects had been to the fore of our work. And because of that consistent hard work, we started to see the rewards of these efforts. Over the past months, those efforts are now turning into real projects on the ground. Approximately US$30 million worth of projects have either been approved or are in implementation.”
Nokta stated that as Guyana continues to earn from our REDD+ model, a significant portion of LCDS funds have been, and will continue to be used to support economic projects.

BUILDING CLIMATE RESILIENCE
However, he acknowledged that recognising the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, more focus will need to be given to preparing ourselves for future climate change.
Nokta said further: “While Guyana will do its part to help mitigate global greenhouse gas emission, we are vulnerable to climate change.
“It means we also have to prepare ourselves to live in a future world of increased temperatures. And to do this we need to build climate resilience in every sector of our economy and every geographical area of our country, not only on the coast, but in the hinterland as well.
“So while we will continue to build and expand on economic projects as part of the LCDS, the next phase of the LCDS will include focus on building resilience to climate change and executing projects in this regard.”
LCDS is the result of the Governments of Norway and Guyana having entered into the world’s second largest Interim REDD+ scheme and the first national-scale effort, with Guyana being one of a few countries in the world that is being paid for the climate services our forests provide.