— Successful assessment mission ends

THE World Bank yesterday reiterated its support for Guyana’s climate change thrust as a due diligence mission ended what officials said was a successful field trip as part of the preparatory phase to support this country’s model.

During last week, a 22-member team, including bank officials, government, civil society and donor representatives met 16 Amerindian communities at Iwokrama, Nappi and Kamarang to discuss the government’s proposed Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) strategy to keep forests standing, store carbon, and in return, receive payments from the international community.

‘JOINT PRESS CONFERENCE’: From left,  World Bank Senior Natural Resource Management Specialist Mr. Laurent Debroux; World Bank Guyana Country Representative, Mr. Giorgio Valentini; Ms. Yvonne Pearson – Chairperson of the National Toshaos Council; President Bharrat Jagdeo and Guyana’s Commissioner of Forests Mr. James Singh.

At a press conference with President Bharrat Jagdeo at the Office of the President complex in Georgetown yesterday, team members commended Guyana for its open, transparent and intensive consultations and other approaches centred on the proposed Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS).

REDD is to be the main financing mechanism for the LCDS and President Jagdeo said Guyana is very pleased with the engagements so far with the international community to develop its approach to climate change.

“We are pleased with the good partnership that we have developed with the multilateral institutions and with our other international partners”, he said.

He recalled expressing concern earlier this year that “old tools” may have been used in an entirely new area in creating a framework and incentives within that framework to ensure sustainable development friendly to the environment and that would not result in significant climate change.

He said that since then he has seen a “great willingness on the part of the donors – the multilateral institutions and other partners – to work in a collaborative fashion to develop new tools…approaches to this issue. For this we are very grateful”, the President said.

Guyana is leading a group of 37 countries around the world that stand to benefit from the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), a Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) administered by the World Bank.

World Bank Guyana Country Representative, Mr. Giorgio Valentini, who has persistently backed the Guyana Government’s thrust, yesterday maintained his stand, saying the bank was proud to be partnering Guyana in this project.

The visiting mission included representatives from the United States and the United Kingdom, two of the FCPF donor countries, and it was the final assessment before anticipated approval of support for Guyana under the trust fund.

The visit, organised by the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC), was financed by the World Bank and the British Department For International Development (DFID).

Others on the field trip were representatives from Conservation International, the World Wildlife Fund, the four non-governmental organisations involved in Amerindian affairs, the Amerindian Affairs Ministry, Ms. Yvonne Pearson – Chairperson of the National Toshaos Council, among others.

A section of the audience at yesterday’s joint news conference.

This country’s participation in the FCPF is an initiative of the Guyana Government following President Jagdeo’s approach to the international community for Guyana to get compensation from its forest value to future carbon markets.

As this is an initiative driven and owned by Guyana, the country is also likely to be the first to benefit from the FCPF’s Readiness Mechanism Phase grant of US$3.6M to help prepare the necessary environment to participate in the Carbon Finance Mechanism (or Carbon Fund) of the FCPF.

The bank yesterday also announced that a US$200,000 seed grant will be provided to support further REDD formulation efforts, including funding technical studies coordinated by the GFC and information efforts and community awareness activities coordinated by the National Toshaos Council.

Valentini said this is an exciting time to be in Guyana, reiterating that the bank is in a very good partnership with this country and it recognises its leadership role in climate change dialogue here and especially abroad.

He said the mission was very successful and the indigenous communities that members met are willing to move forward and are connected to the big picture.

This, he said, speaks very highly for Guyana.

Mr. Laurent DeBroux, Senior Natural Resource Management Specialist at the World Bank, said Guyana is taking the right approach in its REDD Readiness plan and it is looking to address the risks and other issues involved.

He too agreed that the model Guyana is developing could set the precedent for other countries and praised the country for its openness in dealing with issues raised.

Pearson said the mission was a great opportunity for the indigenous people to be involved, adding that they are getting on board.

She commended the government for involving Amerindians so integrally in the process and said they are looking forward for a “great partnership” in the LCDS and REDD.

GFC Commissioner, Mr. James Singh said the multi-stakeholder team was able to clarify several issues raised during the outreach and reported that the mission was successful.

President Jagdeo stressed that Guyana has some of the best forestry practices in the world and declared that he has no fear about the local capacity to monitor forest utilisation.

Leaders of 187 countries are to meet in Copenhagen in Denmark in December to discuss a new global agreement to reduce climate change, which hopefully will include forests, providing a new opportunity for income for the people of Guyana.

At the FCPF Participants’ Committee (PC) meeting on June 16-18, 2009 in Montreux, Switzerland, the PC cleared the proposals for Guyana, Panama and Indonesia for funding under the Readiness phase, subject to compliance with safeguards and other Bank due diligence.

The FCPF was launched at the 13th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Bali, and became operational in June 2008.

As of April 2009, 37 countries from Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America are participating in the FCPF, and 13 donors or contributors from both the public and private sectors are supporting the FCPF financially.

An earlier World Bank due diligence mission came up with a “very positive assessment” and the grant may be approved in the next few months, Valentini said earlier this year.

The GFC did a superb job in documenting the issues for the Bank’s Readiness Preparation Plan (R-PP formerly known as R-Plan) and Guyana is the only country cleared at the PC meeting that is undergoing the due diligence of the World Bank for approval of the FCPF’s grant, he said.

Valentini earlier this year said, “I am a supporter of the climate change agenda of the country and the proposed LCDS provides a very good entry point into the preparation mechanism for the FCPF and the future carbon fund mechanism. The President has well illustrated the benefits of Guyana’s forest to the world and the potential for improving Guyana’s socio-economic development. On this, we are looking forward to supporting the government in implementing the LCDS and to make Guyana a best practice for the rest of the countries in the FCPF.”

“It’s a very unique opportunity if you think about Guyana being the first of 37 countries worldwide in this”, he said.

He explained that the preparation phase to be supported by the grant involves a baseline and historical assessment of the forest to understand the rate of deforestation, changes in the forest and the drivers of deforestation.

The grant is to prepare the country to move into the Carbon Fund Phase, which remunerates selected countries with Performance-Based Carbon Payments from carbon markets and/or funds, with a certain baseline, including a monitoring and verification system by which international organizations can monitor the forests for deforestation, the impact of mining and other factors, he said.

“Guyana can become the best practice after this is done…something that Guyana can be proud of and that can provide long-term sustainability to improvements in the social and economic sectors”, he said.