By Gaulbert Sutherland
With indigenous representatives raising the issue of free, prior and informed consent at last week’s Climate and Forest Conference in Oslo, Norway, President Bharrat Jagdeo says his administration has done enough consultation on the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS).
“We have throughout engaged the indigenous community. We have included them at the highest level, the steering committee. We’ve had external monitors. We’ve had an indigenous lawyer giving an opinion, a written opinion on whether it met free, prior, informed consent. I think we have done enough”, the President said in an interview with this newspaper in Oslo.
Indigenous organisation, the Amerindian Peoples Association (APA), has argued that there has not been adequate participation by the indigenous people in decision-making. It has said that while the process for discussing the LCDS/REDD+ was lauded by the government and others, it has not adequately informed the indigenous people or secured their participation in decision-making.
The APA has said that official outreach efforts on the LCDS did not meet the required standards for good faith public consultation, noting that meetings were rushed, documents were not supplied with sufficient time prior to meetings, and absent or weak translation support.
Jagdeo said that they remain open to the APA noting that from the beginning the organisation was invited to sit on the steering committee.
He said that he found the excuse that they were too busy not credible because they had a chance to be a part of shaping the model from the inside. Nevertheless, he said, the government has involved the three indigenous organisations plus the National Toshaos Council (NTC). He said the North Rupununi District Development Board also sits on the steering committee as well as attorney David James, who sits there in his independent right.
He said that James as well as NTC Head, Yvonne Pearson were prominent members of the APA in the past. Jagdeo also said that James was contracted to give an independent view on whether the consultations met the principles of free, prior and informed consent and his opinion was that it did.
In March, following a week-long workshop on ‘Indigenous Peoples Rights, Extractive Industries and National Development Policies in Guyana’, some indigenous leaders had signed a statement which, among other things, called on government and international agencies to shelve policies related to projects like the LCDS, REDD+ until free, prior and informed consent guidelines for land use are in place. In Easter, during a meeting with toshaos in St. Ignatius, Region Nine, this newspaper was told that Jagdeo said that two communities, Karaudarnau and Maruranau whose toshaos had signed the statement would not receive any money through the LCDS.
Asked about this Jagdeo said a majority of the steering committee members had said the two communities should not receive any assistance.
“When I discussed this at the multi-stakeholders meeting, I said that we should respect the wishes of the elected leaders and if the villages that said we shouldn’t do any LCDS activities in their community that we should respect that, we should not do anything.
The steering committee members said to me, including a number of prominent people but most of the members, they said this may not be the wish of the community and if we do that then we may be unfairly penalizing a community that wants to move forward”, he said.
He said that he agreed to consult with the communities to find out if the position was reflective of the view of the majority of the people. He said what he said at the meeting in Region Nine was he wanted to respect the wishes but was prevailed upon to do the consultations. He said that Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Pauline Sukhai visited the communities. “The prevailing sentiment from the two communities I think that have been consulted is that they want things to continue and we will continue in these communities”, the President said. “The prevailing sentiment is that they want the LCDS activities to continue in their villages” and so the communities will benefit, Jagdeo stressed.
