through carbon-credit funding, Vice-President Jagdeo says

By Melissa Gordon

GUYANA’S ground-breaking deal to sell carbon credits earned as a result of its pristine rainforests, has begun to deliver substantial positive results in indigenous communities across the country.

Vice-President, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo, during his weekly press conference on Thursday, said that the first disbursement of funds under the agreement has already resulted in 500 transformative projects being implemented for advancement of the welfare and development of Guyana’s indigenous population.
He said: “$22.5 million was given to 242 Amerindian communities, $5 million to the Guyana Forestry Commission and $122.5 million remains in a bank account to be used for adaptation funding.”

Speaking to the projects being developed and implemented under the village administrations, Dr Jagdeo said: “These projects, I must say, are making a huge difference; the 500 projects to these villages.”
Highlighting the meticulous planning process for development of the projects, Vice-President Jagdeo said villages utilised a consultative process to develop proposals, with each community holding meetings to derive sustainability plans for utilising the funds.
“We insisted that they would have to have the minutes of the meeting held at the village to approve the plan, along with an attendance record of the participants in the village, the villagers to show a buy-in at the level of the village, [among other things],” he said.
Monitoring mechanisms are also a core component, according to Vice-President Jagdeo, noting that finance and monitoring committees must be established in each village to oversee disbursements.

Dr Jagdeo also contrasted the efficiency of the direct payments to indigenous villages to past funding through international intermediaries, for instance, the Norway payments.
The Vice-President said too that the argument is not just to have funding for initiatives, but also mechanisms for getting funds which are fit to purpose.
“We have demonstrated this through this arrangement now, because we have changed that mechanism… all the funds will be placed in an account that is under our national jurisdiction, but to be audited by international audit firms and presented to our Parliament to see that their funds are secure.
“So, we’ve changed the model a bit. And because of that change in the model, we have had 500 projects in one year under implementation when it took us sometimes two or three projects from the international community 13 years to get invented,” Dr Jagdeo said.

In line with the government’s ambitious Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) 2030, a noteworthy commitment has been made to allocate 15 per cent of all revenues generated from forest-carbon markets to Amerindian communities.

This allocation is contingent upon their voluntary participation and development of Village Sustainability Plans.
The agreement stipulates that the Hess Corporation is set to acquire 37.5 million high-quality REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) carbon credits from Guyana. This transaction, spanning the period between 2022 and 2032, is valued at a minimum of US$750 million, emphasising the substantial financial support directed towards the LCDS objectives.