UNDER the Guyana/Norway agreement, the Monitoring Reporting and Verification (MRV) story has been deemed a success and having completed all the necessary requirements, Guyana expects to be shortly advised on the fourth payment.

In November 2009, Guyana and Norway signed an agreement that would see Norway handing over up to USD $250 million over five years to finance the national plan to reorient Guyana’s economy to a low–carbon path, the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS).
The REDD+ finance is currently being used, inter alia, to foster local development of low-carbon industries.
“And again, we anticipate further successes arising from the payments we would be receiving from this fourth payment,” Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon said on Thursday during his weekly post-Cabinet press briefing.
The aforementioned MRV has been a success at a national level and sub-nationally, its successes have been such that in hinterland communities, MRVs are being resorted to as a sub-national model for what Guyana conceived and agreed with the Norwegians as a national model, Luncheon explained.
“Our partnership with Norway should not be considered to be all hanky dory and everything is going nice bless you Jesus. That would be an overestimation and there are some areas that we are on record as raising with Norway and in the context of an extension of the Guyana/Norway partnership beyond 2015 which brings an end to the first phase.
“We have raised concerns that point to a need for reform…addressing this extension and addressing smoother, more predictable and faster financing under this initiative and the second concern is dealing with the impact of sustainable mining on Guyana’s reference levels. It is apparent that the mining sector and its operations is impactful when it comes to Guyana and its reference levels,” he said.
According to Luncheon, Guyana’s efforts in maintaining compliance with its obligations under the partnership agreement remains paramount. “But we have made pledges to a very important sector of our national economy mining, to wit, LCDS and its implementation would not be to the disadvantage to the mining sector.”
Luncheon said Guyana has undertaken not to issue new leases in forestry and to maintain a certain range in its deforestation rate.
Meanwhile, staff members of the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) have received specialised training which enables them to ensure that Guyana will continue to receive financial rewards for maintaining a low rate of deforestation and forest degradation through its Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS).
The GFC reported last month that its staffers had successfully completed a two-year programme, entitled “Strengthening of Guyana’s Technical Capacity to Implement a Monitoring Reporting and Verification System (MRVS)”, and other Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) activities.
The Commission said the programme, funded by the European Union and the Government of the Netherlands through the Guyana Shield Facility, aimed at establishing, inter alia, the historic reference level in Guyana on REDD+ and developing the future projected approach for REDD+.
The programme had also aimed at building a two-way communication process to channel information to stakeholders on REDD + implementation; explore possible co-benefits to be incorporated into the national MRVS; and develop a set of national REDD+ Strategy options that would contribute towards maintenance of Guyana’s already low rate of deforestation and forest degradation.
The REDD+ initiative is a framework through which developing countries are rewarded financially for any emission reductions associated with a decrease in the conversion of forests to alternate land uses.
Written By Telesha Ramnarine