Blueprint for the green state

Nov 26, 2017 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

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By H.E. David Granger
Guyanese are proud of their country. Our national anthem sings of a “…land of rivers and plains, made rich by the sunshine and lush by the rains, set gem-like and fair between mountains and seas…”
Guyana’s green grandeur is not a mere figment of its citizens’ imagination. Its grasslands, highlands, islands, wetlands, lakes, coastal mudflats, rainforests, rivers and waterfalls are spectacular. Its immunity to earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes and stormy weather are something to sing about.
Guyana is part of the Guiana Shield, one of the world’s last remaining blocks of pristine rainforest. The ‘Shield’ is the source of 15 per cent of the earth’s freshwater reserves; its biodiversity provides ecosystem services such as food, freshwater and medicinal products.
It provides environmental services such as the regulation of the water cycle, water quality and pollination. Its forests capture and store carbon, thereby mitigating the greenhouse effect. The ‘Shield’ provides environmental and ecological services that are essential to life on earth.
Guyana, itself, is a net carbon sink. More than 80 per cent of our country is covered by forests which are the habitat of some of world’s rarest and most unique flora and fauna.
Guyana, through its environmental conservation policies, has been one of the guardians of Mother Earth. It pledged – at the Heads of Government Conference of the Commonwealth in Malaysia in 1989 (28 years ago, long before Rio) – that it would set aside, for posterity and in perpetuity, 371,000 hectares of its forests to be used as a model of conservation and sustainable forest management.
The area, now known as the Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development (IICRCD) – an area larger than Malta – was an early expression of concern over the degradation of the earth’s environment and the threat which this posed “to present and future generations.”
The Paris Agreement on climate change, which I signed in April of 2016 at the United Nations, committed Guyana to place an additional two million hectares – an area almost as large as the State of Israel – under conservation. Guyana is signatory, also, to the:
– Amazon Cooperation Treaty;
– Convention on Biological Diversity;
– Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora;
– United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; and,
– Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer.
Guyana is moving towards becoming a ‘green state’. This country, in so doing, needs to develop a ‘total’, transformative plan at the household, community, regional, national and international levels.
The Department of the Environment, established in 2016, was a step in this direction. It represented our resolve to ensuring a holistic and rationalized approach to environmental conservation and management through the coordination and integration of agencies with an environmental mandate that could effectively respond to the challenge of the ‘green economy’ and realise the concept of sustainable development.
The Green State Development Strategy is intended to impact on the livelihood of every citizen by allowing for:
– protection of our biodiversity and the promotion of eco-tourism and eco-education;
– promotion of energy generation from renewable sources and the introduction of low-emission, low-carbon manufacturing; and
– preservation of our wetlands, waterways and lakes and the extension of the protected areas system in every region.
The Green State Development Strategy is expected to build greater economic resilience by diversifying production and reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and generating renewable energy from a number of sources – biomass, hydro, solar and wind; emphasise low-carbon manufacturing.
It will add value to production through cleaner, cheaper and renewable energy generation and propose plans to move closer towards the goal of full, renewable energy by the year 2025, thereby reducing our exposure to the volatilities of oil markets.
The Green State Development Strategy will define the purpose, principles, policies and the processes which will guide our path towards becoming a ‘green state’. A better understanding of the need for a strategy requires an appreciation of the rationale behind the ‘green state’.
Guyana’s economy has been dependent for far too long on the six sisters – bauxite, fisheries, gold, rice, sugar and timber. These traditional sectors have served us well but many of them are now aged and ailing.
Guyana’s high dependence of commodity exports, coupled with our heavy reliance on the importation of fossil fuels, exposes our economy to exogenous shocks.
The economy will also be rebalanced by reducing poverty and promoting greater equality between the coastland and the hinterland and between rural and urban areas.
Guyana is rich in natural resources. These resources are our national patrimony. They must be developed for the benefit of this and all future generations. The ‘green state’ will pursue the sustainable management of our natural resources. It will ensure that these resources will be developed in such a manner that will not result in resource exhaustion or extinction.
The Green State Development Strategy is not a whim or fancy. It is intended to become a rational roadmap to guide Guyana along the pathway towards the ‘green state’ and show how the ‘good life’ can be assured.
It will develop the pathway towards a diversified and resilient economy; promote the sustainable management of our economy; protect the environment and steer the country towards the creation of happy households and happy people – the ultimate measure of the ‘good life.’
The Green State Development Strategy Multi-stakeholder Expert Group, therefore, is an essential element in the consultative and cooperative process. It is expected to help to produce a ‘blueprint for a green state’ which leads to the eventual development and adoption of a green development strategy.
The multi-Stakeholder Experts Group will help us to move from imagination to implementation, from reverie to reality.
The ‘Group’ is expected to provide technical expertise and experience into the process of developing an inclusive and comprehensive strategy which will enjoy national ownership.
I expect that its efforts and exertions will enable everyone to better understand why Guyana is pursuing the practices, policies and projects to become a ‘green state’.

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