Government is yet to establish the dedicated website to show pledges of funding and disbursements of money for REDD+ and Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) projects despite committing to do this by the end of last month.
Under a forests saving agreement with Norway, the government committed to establishing the website “by the end of April 2011” to facilitate transparency. Political parties and civil society members have consistently highlighted corruption fears in spending money earned under the pact worth potentially up to US$250M by 2015 for results achieved by Guyana in limiting emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.
Under a revised Joint Concept Note (JCN) agreed to in March, it was stated that transparency around funding is critical for REDD+ to function well. “To facilitate such transparency, the Government of Guyana will – by the end of April 2011 – establish a dedicated website, containing an overview of all committed international funding for activities relevant to REDD+ and LCDS efforts in Guyana,” the revised JCN says.
“This will ensure easy access to transparent information on contributors to Guyana’s REDD+ and LCDS efforts. The website will track pledges of funding, commitments of funding, and actual disbursements,” it said.
Under the original JCN of the agreement, it was required that an overview of all funding directed to activities relevant to REDD+/LCDS efforts in Guyana be made public and updated on the LCDS website, in order to ensure maximum effectiveness of the funds and to provide transparency concerning contributors to Guyana’s REDD+/LCDS efforts.
The government has identified several projects which will be funded by money from Norway under the agreement but actors here have consistently called for transparency and a report on aspects of the Guyana-Norway pact by the NGO, Rainforest Alliance has said that there is a need to “very consistently” address the issue of safeguards in Guyana’s REDD+ and LCDS activities with lack of clarity on the part of government leading to many questions.
Norway released US$30 million into the Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund (GRIF) last year and in March the country’s environment minister, Erik Solheim announced another disbursement of US$40 million into the fund overseen by the World Bank.
