Amerindians shut out of carbon crediting process

Dec 15, 2022 News

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…APA says Leaders were not consulted, Govt. violating Indigenous Peoples’ rights

Kaieteur News – The Amerindian Peoples Association (APA) has criticized the Guyana Government of violating the rights of Indigenous People by failing to consult and gaining their approval in the sale and carbon crediting process.

In a statement on Wednesday, the APA said it has taken note of the issuance of 33.47 million carbon credits to Guyana under the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) Secretariat’s TREES (The REDD+ Environmental Excellence Standard) on December 1, 2022. The APA also said it has taken note of the Government of Guyana’s immediate sale of those credits to the Hess Corporation, a company that is actively contributing to catastrophic climate change. “The APA continues to voice its deep concern that this carbon crediting process violates Indigenous Peoples’ rights to their free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC)”.  Having worked with several communities throughout Guyana, we were aware of their observations and concerns about various proposals and commitments that Guyana had made under the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) 2030 draft and raised these at the meetings of the Multi-Stakeholder Steering Committee,” the Indigenous Body stated.

According to the APA, some observations that the Leaders made were that no one consulted them on whether the communities were in favour of their lands and forests being included in carbon trading. No one had consulted them on whether 15% revenue from any carbon sale is what they agree to, no consultation was done on the mechanics of where funding goes and who has access and oversight of these funds, if the communities, may, in the end, agree to this transaction.

The APA said it also submitted concerns and recommendations to both the Government of Guyana and the ART Secretariat, noting that the responses given were vague and essentially disregarded our concerns. Another observation the APA raised was that Guyana designed and developed its proposal during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic when there were restrictions on travel and gathering, meaning, the decision-making forums of the communities were also restricted under the national system. This resulted in a two-year hiatus of the annual conference of the National Toshaos Council (NTC) and therefore no Executive Body of the NTC was in existence. Calls were made for this to be done to allow representation and participation at the MSSC level.

“Sadly though, today, the Government of Guyana and the ART Secretariat in their Press Release announcing the credits stated that the National Toshaos Council is the ‘legal representative’ of Indigenous Peoples of Guyana and endorsed the sale of credits.” The APA asserted that while the NTC, as a body comprised of all Toshaos in Guyana must represent the interests of our communities at a national level, it maintains that the Amerindian Act identifies the Village Councils as the only decision-making body for indigenous communities.

“Even as the Government of Guyana claims that there were ‘seven-months long consultations’, we are also aware that communities requested that an updated version of the LCDS 2030 document be taken back to communities so they can see how their concerns and recommendations were incorporated or addressed. Villages brought to clusters also to these so-called ‘consultations’ noted that they were rushed, and they needed more time to collectively understand in their own time. This unfortunately did not happen despite the APA also voicing this concern at the meetings of the MSSC,” the APA said.

According to the APA it must be reiterated that the Government submitted its proposal to ART for the approval of carbon credits without the knowledge and consent of Guyana’s Indigenous Peoples – even though the credits include those generated from forests on Indigenous Peoples’ titled and untitled lands. The proposal also includes an opaque benefit-sharing mechanism that had not been developed in consultation with indigenous peoples.  “We know from our interactions with the ART Secretariat that NTC approval was determinative in the approval process for those credits, and was used by ART as evidence that Guyana has met the requirements of TREES for the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples and their free prior and informed consent to the deal. In addition, the fact that the Government has immediately sold them to an oil company, and seemingly has more deals with oil companies in the pipeline, raises significant concerns about the environmental integrity of the credits,” APA said.

Verification

Additionally, the APA said during the verification process, it provided the ART Secretariat with information on the Government’s failure to comply with this standard. This standard requires the full and effective participation of Indigenous Peoples, respect for FPIC, and consistency with the objectives of International Conventions and Agreements. That the ART Secretariat and the independent verifiers of the carbon credits (a US company called Aster Global) can simply dismiss this evidence as not relevant or the views of one NGO, points to a failed system of social and environmental safeguards and associated auditing.  The APA also shared that UN Treaty Bodies and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights have consistently expressed concern about ongoing violations of Indigenous Peoples’ rights in Guyana over a period of many years.

“While acknowledgement is given to the Government for committing 15% of the carbon credits revenue to Indigenous Peoples, questions remain about precisely how those benefits will be distributed and any conditions that may be attached to opting into receiving them. Furthermore, it is not clear how Indigenous Communities having have critical land rights issues still to be addressed will be dealt with,” the APA said. “There needs to be a mechanism, if Villages so decide, on individual land use or collective use of our titled and untitled customary and traditional lands (territories and resources). There is no law as well that speaks to carbon ownership rights in Guyana. Whilst Guyana’s laws speak to recognizing ‘Village Lands’ as those titled lands, there is still a need for the reform of Legislation to ensure that Indigenous Peoples’ rights to lands and territories comply with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and other Human Rights Instruments that Guyana has ratified,” the APA said.

Violations

The APA is adamant that the process of issuing and selling these credits has already violated “our communities’ rights to effective participation and FPIC; it is unclear how they might further harm Indigenous Peoples’ rights, including rights to lands and territories. This will – as it should – no doubt undermine international confidence in the TREES standard, particularly among indigenous peoples.  The fact that there is no grievance mechanism whatsoever under the ART/TREES process is further evidence that it is well below international best practice and is doing a disservice to carbon crediting processes and the establishment of just climate processes. This deal has created a dangerous precedent, for Guyana and the world. We call on the Government, the NTC and the ART Secretariat to acknowledge the flaws in this process and to commit to genuinely respecting the rights of our Indigenous Communities moving forward.”

Last week, The Government of Guyana signed what was dubbed a “historic” agreement with U.S. oil company, Hess Corporation for the sale of carbon credits the country earned for its massive forest cover. The signing ceremony was hosted at State House, in the presence of members of Cabinet and the Diplomatic Corps, private sector representatives and other government officials.

The multi-year agreement is for 37.5 million Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) jurisdictional carbon credits. This initiative is a global mechanism that was created by the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in support of the Paris Agreement. Hess is now Guyana’s first client, purchasing 30 percent of the country’s carbon credits for a minimum of US$750M. It was explained that the cost of the carbon credits can increase and if this shift occurs, Guyana will benefit more. Based on the agreement with Hess Corporation, it will be paying US$15 per tonne between 2016 and 2020, which amounts to US$187M. In the next 18 months, the Vice President said he expects the payments to come to the country according to the schedule. Some $28M of this amount he said, will go directly to Amerindian communities.

Meanwhile, during the period 2021 to 2025, Guyana will be earning US$20 per tonne which is expected to rake in another US$250M for the country. For the period 2025 to 2030 Hess will pay US$25 per tonne amounting to US$312M, bringing the total to US$750M over the 10 year period. Overall, the Indigenous Communities will receive approximately US$112M.

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