IN May 2023, Guyana was identified by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, as a ‘Natural Climate Solution’ in Action (NCS in Action).

“NCS in Action” demonstrates the effectiveness of natural climate solutions (NCS) through demonstrated action at national and community levels to protect nature whilst addressing climate change. They draw attention to the extraordinary potential for reducing global warming while simultaneously producing favourable environmental effects and socioeconomic gains through investing in NCS on the voluntary carbon market. They exalt the inspiring stories of how these carbon market projects have positively impacted people, the environment, and the climate.

Sonia Latchman, an Amerindian who was born Guyanese and Amerindian Native, was elected as the village’s Toshao (chief) in 2019 by her village. While she was determined to ensure that the village grew, it was only after she became a Toshao, that Latchman recalled that, as a young girl, the village elders had guarded a nearby forest reserve against deforestation. Thereafter, she realised and understood that the forest reserve was a resource that could help her village of Bethany flourish—whilst protecting nature. At the time, the community had approximately 500 or so inhabitants who were primarily farmers, loggers, and fishermen and who did not have access to computers or the internet. According to Ms. Latchman in the documentary, “We still need to be technologically minded, even though we live deep in the jungle.”

It also highlighted that Guyana has a forest cover of over 85%, much of it being the Amazon rainforest, which has the richest biodiversity in the world and important watersheds. Guyana still has pristine forests with flourishing endangered species like jaguars and giant otters. Over the past forty years, Guyana, a country with a small population whose residents primarily reside in coastal areas, has been able to sustain more than 99 percent of its forest cover over decades of sustainable utilisation.

Guyana recognised a chance to grow economically without turning to deforestation as the international community united against climate change in the first decade of the 2000s. “High forest cover, low deforestation” was promoted by the Government. In 2009, through the first Low Carbon Development Strategy, Guyana planned for jurisdiction-scale carbon finance engagements through the voluntary carbon markets. The starting point to this journey started through a bilateral cooperation agreement between the Government of Guyana and the Kingdom of Norway, signed in 2009. Through this partnership, Guyana earned approximately US$220M in revenues for the period 2010 to 2015. The revenues were used by Guyana in developing a world class Monitoring Reporting and Verification System of its forests and supported the establishment of new protected areas; also climate finance was challenged to low-carbon development and projects that promote climate resilience. Through this programme, Guyana has trained thousands of people through REDD-funded development initiatives and created thousands of jobs.

Guyana’s vast forests provide a service to the world, by conserving more than 19.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide.

According to Pradeepa Bholanath, the Senior Director for climate and REDD+ at Guyana’s Ministry of Natural Resources “We needed climate financing to be predictable and long term and to address climate action at national and community levels.” “The market mechanism enables private capital flows to come into the system and provide a crucial component of the remedy.” Last year, the nation sold 37.5 million credits, or one-third of its 2016–2020 issuance and future issuances through 2030, worth a minimum of $750 million. This made Guyana the first country to sell ART-TREES credits on the voluntary carbon market. Guyana intends to sell the remaining two-thirds through voluntary and compliance carbon markets and expects jurisdiction-scale credits to attract premium markets that are above small-scale project-based credit markets that are not linked with national-scale ambition.

She also said that, “Since 2008, Guyana has been making the point that financing mechanisms for forest climate services need to meet three fundamental tests: firstly, they must be national in scale, or at least jurisdictional in scale in the case of large countries; secondly, they must be capable of integration with voluntary and, in time, compliance carbon markets; and thirdly, they must incentivise all forest jurisdictions and not just those who are already deforesting.”

Our ambition was to find ways to value a broader range of ecosystem services beyond timber, minerals, and whatever else could be extracted and make that value monetize climate action on the ground.”

This vision was embodied in Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy, or LCDS, which was the first such Strategy from a developing nation worldwide. For Guyana to embrace the United Nations’ Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) framework on a national, or jurisdictional, scale, the Guyana Norway Bilateral Cooperation, outlined a mechanism where Guyana could earn up to US$250 million in performance-based financing over five years – 2010 to 2015. Despite its success in maintaining deforestation rates low, there are many climate adaptation projects that need to be financed to protect communities and industries from the severe impacts of the climate crisis. These challenges will not go away by themselves and resources are necessary to advance action. According to the agreement, Guyana would earn from climate financing, for maintaining low deforestation rates, and Guyana would invest these resources in low-carbon development objectives. At the jurisdictional level, it was the first time REDD+ had been applied.

Now, Amerindian and other local villages can participate in the LCDS 2030, and directly receive revenues from the sale of ART-TREES credits as part of the programme’s new market-based phase. These villages create village sustainability plans and choose community development initiatives through a democratic method. The government of Guyana has set aside 15% of the REDD+ revenue to assist Indigenous villages in putting their sustainability plans into action. These plans aim to strengthen infrastructure, local economies, food security programmes, and social upliftment endeavours. Guyana’s carbon finance has also reached Indigenous people in remote areas like Bethany Village, assisting them to raise cattle, establishing guest homes and shops, and processing cassava products.

Toshao Latchman expressed that REDD+ funding (climate financing) in her village was used to construct a computer hub where locals could learn how to use technology and interact with the outside world. Latchman, who also teaches at the high school level, claims that the neighbourhood has improved school transportation by using income. As a result, learners are attending school more frequently and participating more actively in community activities. Latchman believes Bethany Village may thrive through Guyana’s REDD+ jurisdictional programme without abandoning what makes it so unique in the first place: “We have the best forest in the world,” she says.

(This is part of a weekly series on LCDS.) The author can be contacted at cparkinson0206@gmail.com).