PRESIDENT Dr. Irfaan Ali-led’s administration has prioritised advancing programmes aimed at economic development, social upliftment, and food security for hinterland communities.
The Government of Guyana has outlined two avenues for forest carbon financing for Amerindian Villages; 15 per cent of all its earnings from forest climate services go directly to the Amerindian Villages, and the remaining 85 per cent of earnings, part of that will go towards investments in hinterland development, including in the areas of education, healthcare, infrastructure, land titling, digital connectivity, and other areas.

These are part of the vision of the expanded Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) 2030.

Amerindian villages will benefit from more than the 15 per cent direct allocation; these villages will directly benefit from every facet of the LCDS 2030, particularly the projects involving renewable energy and climate change adaptation and mitigation. Several of these projects are already under implementation.

According to the government, it will support low carbon initiatives at the community level, income generation activities, and programmes aimed at boosting food security at the village level.
The framework known as REDD+ was developed by the Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to direct activities in the forest sector that reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, as well as the sustainable management of forests and the conservation and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries. A recognised certification/accreditation platform for carbon credits is the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions Environmental Excellence Benchmark (ART-TREES), which Guyana has been utilising for its programme.

Under the first phase of the LCDS, Norway has paid Guyana a total of GUY $46.2 billion, or about US$220 million, in results-based payments since 2009.
The diagram below shows the low-carbon development areas that were financed under the first LCDS:

These monies have been used in part to build the nation’s low-carbon infrastructure, finance renewable energy, guard against flooding, create green jobs, and advance the land titling programme for all remaining title requests. Approximately 13 villages have received absolute grants through the Amerindian Land Titling (ALT) programme, with Region Nine’s Yupukari being the most recent recipient. The village received a 145 square-mile land extension in June 2022, making it three times larger than its previous size. The designation of 21 villages took place, and 19 received Certificates of Title, the last stage in the titling procedure.

LCDS 2030 continues the work started in each of these areas and expands low-carbon development across all communities in Guyana.
(This is part of a weekly series on LCDS.) The author can be contacted at cparkinson0206@gmail.com.)