INDIGENOUS representative of the Alliance For Change (AFC) and former member of the Amerindian Peoples Association (APA) Laura George is now calling for more access to climate financing for Amerindian communities, after failed attempts by her party and the Association to block that same funding.

Over the last two years, the APA has made several failed attempts to get the Architecture for REDD+ Transaction (ART) Secretariat to suspend the issuance of carbon credits to Guyana. George, who was a senior member of the APA, was part of those efforts until she resigned earlier this year to join the AFC.

Those carbon credits, the sale of which the APA attempted to block, are what Guyana has been able to sell to Norway and Hess Corporation for close to US$1 billion. Of this amount, 15 per cent goes directly to Amerindian communities for development projects, which are approved by the communities themselves.

This year, the government decided to allocate a whopping 26.5 per cent instead of 15 per cent of the earnings, amounting to US$23.2 million (or G$4.7 billion) to more than 240 Amerindian communities.

However, no mention was made on Friday by George about the repeated attempts to block that funding by the APA over the last few years. Instead, she used the AFC’s weekly press conference to call for more funds to be made available to Amerindian communities.

“Climate change is happening, so there is drought. Communities should not have to wait for the government to say, annually, this is your allocation from carbon credits; it should go into a fund that communities can access all the time,” George said.

General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo has repeatedly underscored the importance of climate financing, and the important role it can play in transforming the lives of the Amerindian people and developing their communities.
Previously, the PPP General Secretary spoke extensively on the Low-Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) 2030 and the government’s commitment to advancing Amerindian development.

“We came up with a formula approved by the NTC, which is the elected body of a gathering of all the elected bodies, the officials, the toshaos, senior councillors, etc. across the whole country,” he explained.

The number of villages were agreed upon, and it was also decided that the amount dispersed to each will depend on the population size.

In response to the APA’s criticisms about the process and the efforts being made by government to improve the lives of Amerindians through the sale of carbon credits, Dr. Jagdeo had pointed out that the body had failed to halt the development.

“What they [APA] were trying to block is money going to 242 villages to assist there. So, they believe that they’re the monopoly voice. We must not consult with the Toshaos that are all elected leaders; we must consult with the APA. We must get their permission…,” he’d said at the time.

“That is what we are talking about; monopoly behaviour. So, should we not fight that? That is what I said [at] our Congress; we will fight it. They never had a mandate from the Amerindian people; they never had a mandate from the electorate, but they want to block any initiative for the development of Amerindians,” the PPP General Secretary had firmly stated.