The European Union which co-financed the first phase of the Guiana Shield Initiative to the tune of €1,676,331 is now co-financing a new phase with a budget of €1.5 million with a similar contribution from EU member state, the Netherlands, Head of the European Union in Guy- ana, Ambassador Robert Kopecky said yesterday.
In his address during a ceremony at the Promenade Gardens, Georgetown, to launch the Guiana Shield Facility Project in Guyana, he noted also that the total of €3 million is coming from Europe.
This proves the importance that Europe places on protecting biodiversity in South America, said Ambassador Kopecky, noting that collaboration between countries such as Brazil, Colombia, Guyana and Suriname could serve to reinforce integration on environmental issues in the region.
He also emphasized that conservation of the Guiana Shield region is of great importance in the global battle against climate change since it sequesters and stores vast amounts of carbon dioxide.
The EU gives a lot of attention to environment and natural resources management, he noted, particularly in the fields of climate change, sustainable energy, biological diversity, forest governance and green economy.
According to a copy of his speech, Ambassador Kopecky said that for the period 2011-2013 an indicative budget of €517 million is available to support such initiatives worldwide. In this context the EU also supports the Guyana Mangrove Restoration Project (Sustain-able Coastal Zone Pro-tection: Mangrove Manage-ment) with a budget of €4,165,000. In the area of sustainable energy promotion, he added, the EU supports the development of the Micro Hydropower system on the Chiung River at Kato in Region Eight with a budget of €1.841 million.
Moreover, Kopecky said that in the field of environment the EU is supporting the chainsaw milling project of Tropenbos (Dutch organization) in its second phase of implementation with a contribution of €1,968,808 from the budget line, ‘Thematic Programme for Environment and Sustainable Management of natural resources, including energy’.
The objective of the project, he pointed out, is to promote sustainable chainsaw milling for local forest communities with the goal of “Supporting the integration of legal and legitimate domestic timber markets into voluntary Partnership Agreements”.
This project is in line with the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan which sets out a programme of action that forms the European Union’s response to the problem of illegal logging and the trade in associated timber products. A cornerstone of the FLEGT Action Plan is the negotiation of the so-called Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) between the EU and timber-producing countries, leading among others to the establishment of a licensing system for trade in legal timber.
And the Guyana government as part of the Memorandum of Understanding with Norway, he added, has agreed to enter into a dialogue with the EU with the purpose of joining the FLEGT process towards a VPA.
The Guiana Shield region covers 2.5 million km2 and it extends from Colombia in the west to the Brazilian state of Amapa in the east, including the Venezuelan states of Delta Amacuro, Bolivar and Amazonas, all of Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana, and continuing into the Brazilian states of Para, Roraima and Amazonas.
