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Jagdeo says Guyana moving to finalise LCDS

Oct 14, 2009 News

Government, civil society and donor representatives have met with 16 Amerindian communities to discuss the government’s proposed strategy to keep the forest standing and receive payments from the international community.
This comes as the government is moving to finalise its Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) and begin a process to monitor the forest more vigorously using top class technology. This process of monitoring and valuing the process are necessary parts of the process were Guyana to benefit from payments from forests.
The meetings with the communities took place in Regions Seven and Nine.
As a result, the World Bank is providing US$200,000 to help communities better understand the concept of Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) and the government’s efforts to develop its own REDD strategy, namely the LCDS.
These efforts to make communities more aware of REDD formulation efforts will be coordinated by the National Toshaos Council.
Some of the funds will also be used to carry out further technical studies on Guyana’s REDD strategy and this will be coordinated by the Guyana Forestry Commission.
This was announced yesterday by representatives of the World Bank, who shared a press conference with President Bharrat Jagdeo at the Presidential Complex in Georgetown. Jagdeo has received widespread recognition for promotion of the LCDS as a viable effort and model to make the world cooler in the face of global climate change.
President Jagdeo announced that his government was moving to finalise the LCDS, after a series of consultations that involved all sections of the Guyanese society. REDD would be the main financing mechanism for the LCDS, and therefore the strategy’s implementation hangs on the global climate change meeting in Copenhagen this December which is supposed to formulate a new international agreement to manage the environment.
Guyana is arguing for REDD to be included in the new agreement because the current agreement, which expires in 2012, does not reward countries for keeping their forests standing, but provides incentives for countries which would have cut down its forests but are now re-planting.
The President has described this incentive as perverse, and has declared that forests are an important part of global efforts to stop further climate change.
Guyana is the lead participant in the Global Forest Carbon Partnership Facility of the World Bank, which involves 50 donor and forest countries and is administered by the World Bank to help countries develop REDD strategies.  This will enable Guyana to be able to draw down funds if a favourable agreement is reached in Copenhagen.
The government has pulled in three organisations that represent Amerindian people to sit on the steering committee of the LCDS. Jagdeo said he has even given money to these organisations to hold their own consultations with the people.
The decision of the World Bank to fund further information efforts and community awareness was based on the meetings officials of the Bank, other donor agencies and civil society representatives had with the communities, said Mr Laurent Debroux of the World Bank’s regional office.
“Communities visited expressed interest in participating in the design of the REDD strategy. They also identified some issues to be further addressed, such as deepening and expanding the consultation process; land related matters; the establishment of a revenue sharing mechanism that is mutually acceptable and the application of World Bank safeguard policies through the process,” said Giogio Valentini, World Bank country representative in Guyana said.
Yvonne Pearson, who serves as chairperson of the National Toshaos Council, shared the press conference yesterday. She was loud in praise for the “vision” of the LCDS, but she said that Amerindian communities wanted more information.

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