THE Department of Environment will be intensifying its nationwide consultations on the Green State Development Strategy (GSDS) as it pushes towards meeting its June, 2018 deadline for completion of the strategy.

The Green State Development Strategy (SGDS) will guide Guyana’s economic and socio-cultural development over the next 15 years. On Friday, Director of the Department of Environment Ndibi Schwiers and GSDS Coordination Desk National Coordinator Eustace Alexander, brought the media up to speed on the strategy.

Alexander, in his presentation, explained that a framework document prepared by the Ministry of the Presidency with technical and financial support from the UN Environment Programme, is currently being used to guide the development of the SGDS.
The SGDS will outline President David Granger and his coalition government’s principal foundations for inclusive green economic and social growth, provide a roadmap for achieving sustainable development goals and related targets, and outline a long-term vision for a prosperous and equitable future.

It was explained that the strategy will be designed to reorient and diversify Guyana’s economy, reducing reliance on traditional sectors and opening up new sustainable income and investment opportunities in higher value-added and higher growth sectors.

The GSDS Coordination Desk National Coordinator said while consultations have already commenced, they will be intensified in coming days as the Department of Environment seeks to have greater inputs from the all sections of society and simultaneously raise awareness.

“Nationwide consultations have begun in small and short steps, but we are going to embark on bigger and rapid ways very soon,” Alexander told reporters.
He said currently, the Department of Environment is in discussion with the Ministry of Communities and the Ministry of Indigenous People’s Affairs on how to engage communities and villages throughout the 10 administrative regions.

Pointing out that “Green Conversations” form part of the consultative process, Alexander said that “reen Conversations” have already been held at the Pegasus in Georgetown and in Bartica.
“The ‘Green Conversation’ is a form of consultation, and the next one will be held in New Amsterdam. The Minister of Environment from Barbados is expected to be there for the next ‘Green Conversation’,” he noted.

Alexander explained that information emerging from these conversations and nationwide consultations will be used to map the strategy, allowing for its drafting and completion.
It was noted too that the consultations will be used as a platform to clear up many of the misconceptions surrounding the GSDS. One of the biggest misconceptions Alexander said, is the belief that the GSDS and the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) are two of the same.

ONE IN THE OTHER
“The Low Carbon Development Strategy and the Green State Development Strategy is one in the other. The Green State Development Strategy will build upon the efforts of the Low Carbon Development Strategy. If you understand the Low Carbon Development Strategy properly, you will see many of the recommendations are in line and compatible with the Green State Development Strategy,” Alexander explained.

The director of the department of environment added that another misconception is that mining and logging activities will have to be halted when the GSDS is implemented, because of their harmful impacts.

“I believe that in simple terms, the ‘Green’ economy really has to do with resource optimisation, how we utilise our resources or how we optimise the utilisation of our resources for the development of the country. Some of the resources that we have, they are finite resources, that is to say that a time is going to come when we no would longer have those resources, oil and gas is one of those resources; our job now is to ensure that we explore… those resources and use the financial and other benefits that accrue from that to develop other sectors within the economy,” Schwiers explained.

She said for this and other reasons, the consultations are critical to the process. “We realise that we need to have much more awareness and education sessions with Guyanese, and the ‘Green Conversations’ are intended to ensure that Guyanese are better aware, they are better prepared on how to contribute to the success of the Green State Development Strategy,” she added.

The framework document, which is guiding the process, is aligned to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, serving as a tripod platform for economic, social and environmental safeguards. These safeguards, during the development of the GSDS, are to ensure a sustainable and fair transition to inclusive green growth and a better quality of life for all Guyanese.

It has seven central themes: Green and Inclusive Structural Transformation; diversifying the economic base, accessing new markets and creating decent jobs for all; sustainable management of natural resources and expansion of environmental services: stewardship of natural patrimony; Energy – transition to renewable energy and greater energy independence; resilient infrastructure and spatial development; human development and well-being; governance and institutional pillars and international cooperation, trade and investment.