Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh and German Ambassador Ernest Martens yesterday signed an additional $1.36B agreement for financial cooperation on tropical forest protection.
The agreement in was signed at the Office of the President is equivalent to $5M Euros. A Government Information Agency (GINA) release said it will be used to fund the protection of existing protected areas, as well as securing the establishment of new protected areas.
This is the second agreement signed by the parties and it takes Germany’s financial support for our tropical rainforest up to 8.1M Euros (equivalent to $2.2B). The project, GINA said, is part of Germany’s support to the fight against climate change in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Region. “Certainly over the decades of our formal bilateral relationship, this connection between our two countries manifested itself in a number of development programmes,” Singh said at the signing.
He added that the agreement is a timely undertaking that supports Guyana’s revolutionary Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), which embraces forest resource protection to accelerate economic development.
Germany is fully aware of the important role which Guyana’s 15 million hectares of rainforests play, Ambassador Martens said. The world is now seeing the importance of forest preservation.
He further commended President Bharrat Jagdeo for his efforts to combat climate change.