Latest update February 5th, 2025 11:03 AM
Out of US$750M carbon credit payout Govt. gives US$23M to Amerindians
…Opposition calls it an insult and breach of consultative process
Kaieteur News – People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) and A Partnership for National Unity +Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) Member, Mervin Williams has joined the calls for a revision of the process by which carbon credit schemes are made available to the indigenous peoples of Guyana.
APNU+AFC Executive Member, Mervin Williams
Williams’ comments come one day after Vice President (VP) Bharrat Jagdeo met with over 240 representatives of Amerindian Communities and announced the various sums that would be disbursed to them as a result of an agreement that indigenous communities would get 15 percent pay from the US$750M carbon credit earnings it received as result as a result of the historic Hess Corporation deal, Guyana got for its forests.
Jagdeo told the gathering of Amerindian leaders on Wednesday that a total of $4.6B (US$23M), which represents 15 percent of Hess’ payment for Guyana’s carbon credits, will be disbursed in the various communities. He said the 240 Amerindian communities are set to receive between $10 million and $35 million from carbon credit sales commencing next week.
However, Williams is among those who believe that the communities are being short-changed by the Government given the value of their forests. The opposition member holds the view that the consultative process was not done in good faith and keeping with the UN declarations on the rights of Indigenous Peoples for free, prior and informed consent.
He told Kaieteur News: “what they have gotten is a pittance…Its really taking what is rightfully theirs as they have been keeping the forests and giving them a something that is minuscule in comparison to what they should have gotten to drive development in those communities… The UN declarations on the rights of Indigenous Peoples dictate free, prior and informed consent. The consultation which occurred was nowhere close to those standards,” Williams contended.
The APNU+AFC member noted too that even for small communities $10 million cannot drive any real development. As a result he believes: “it’s just a charade an attempt to put on a show for the Amerindian people and the government is using the Toshoa from these villages to make it look like the Amerindian people are satisfied with what has happened but if you meet the actual residents of those communities you will hear the real stories of the people,” Williams a former Member of Parliament related.
In addition to Williams, the Amerindian People’s Association (APA) had issued a statement reiterating its call for the government “to uphold the tenets of free, prior and informed consent [FPIC] when engaging indigenous communities.” “We have noted numerous instances of the violation of FPIC standards by the government with the latest being the consultation process for the sale of carbon credits. the Amerindian Act of 2006 identifies the Village General Meeting as the decision-making body for indigenous communities and as such, villages should be afforded the opportunity to properly scrutinise policies, agreements and other decisions before signing on to them,” the APA said.
The APA said it is aware of the move by the government to summon Toshaos to Georgetown and informing the village leaders to walk with documents to create bank accounts to facilitate the transfer of monies from the carbon credits agreement.
“The Toshaos were not informed of the amount of money they will be receiving and how that will be governed. Again, the actions of the government indicate that there is very little regard for the FPIC process which is a slap in the face of indigenous peoples in Guyana,” the APA said, while noting that it welcomes assistance to the indigenous communities as they are in need of better infrastructure for health, education and other services.
“However, we are calling on the government to engage indigenous peoples in a more structured way and not foist its decisions on them. We reiterate that the APA is not blocking villages from accessing governmental support but is calling for the administration to respect the FPIC principles,” the APA said reiterating its call for the Minister of Local Government to desist from “campaign of misinformation on the organisation”.
- A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC), Amerindian, Bharrat Jagdeo, People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), Vice President (VP)
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