Latest update March 21st, 2025 7:03 AM
Jun 05, 2011 Letters
Dear Editor,
It is indeed heartening to learn that President Bharrat Jagdeo has been appointed the ‘Roving Ambassador’ where he will represent the interests of the three forest basins, the Amazon, Congo and Borneo-Mekong. It is really far too frequent, that the nay-sayers have been critical of the President, for any and everything, and now this position of prestige is bound to irk quite a few.
President Jagdeo has been a true hero in this regard, and no wonder he has already been awarded the ‘Champion of the Earth’ title. At the just concluded conference in Brazzaville, Congo, where the appointment was made, the Guyanese leader intimated that it was quite possible that poorer nations could abandon attempts to conserve their natural resources, if funding issues were not resolved. Thus the expected reciprocation is that the international community be supportive of efforts to avoid deforestation.
It is also most fitting in this letter that a few important facts be assimilated, highlighting why the image of Mr. Jagdeo, and Guyana by extension, continues to increase.
1. An estimated US$4 billion has been pledged by richer countries to help tackle climate change through the United Nations REDD+ scheme, which aims to create financial value for carbon stored in forests.
2. The Congo, Amazon and Borneo-Mekong basins make up 80 per cent of the world’s equatorial forests, and are home to two-thirds of the world’s land-based biodiversity and 300 million people, many of whom rely on the forests to survive.
3. In halting deforestation in the three regions, which account for more than 40 per cent of the world’s forest-held carbon, is seen as crucial to the fight against climate change.
4. Currently, the forests are under threat, losing 5.4 million hectares every year, mainly to agriculture.
The above facts clearly show that there is a need for some kind of pioneering individual, and this has been the role of Mr. Jagdeo.
So indeed one has to be proud of him, and be very thankful that he is unselfishly pursuing a path of just recourse for the poorer nations, who have been exploited for too long.
Attiya Baksh
Mar 21, 2025
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