Guyana-Norway forest partnership…
Three years into the five-year forest protection partnership with Norway, an ‘opt-in’ mechanism for forested Amerindian communities is still to be finalized but discussions are continuing.
A release from the Government Information Agency (GINA) said that last week the Office of Climate Change and the National Toshaos Council (NTC) continued discussions on the opt-in mechanism concept paper among other areas of mutual interest for the implementation of Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS).
GINA said that Presidential Adviser and Head of the Office of Climate Change Shyam Nokta told the NTC delegation, including the NTC Chairman Toshao Derick John, that a proposed opt-in mechanism was raised in the May 2010 version of the LCDS and in 2011 an opt-in concept paper was considered by the Multi-Stakeholder Steering Committee and presented to the NTC for review and was to be provided to villages for their review.
“From the inception of the opt-in mechanism there have been some misconceptions, which we have clarified and I would like to take the opportunity again today to do so. Firstly, under the Guyana-Norway partnership only state forests have been included in the model and for which we are being paid for performance to the tune of US$70 million to date.
The opt-in mechanism presents an opportunity for those titled villages with forests to voluntarily include their forests, if they so wish, into the model and in so doing receive payments based on performance. This does not mean that if villages choose not to opt-in they will not get benefits under the LCDS,” Nokta was quoted as saying. He added that all Guyanese will benefit from LCDS projects.
Nokta assured that the principle of free, prior and informed consent will apply to the opt-in mechanism and villages can decide if and when they wish to opt in and will be provided with all available information to assist them in making this decision.
According to GINA, most of the toshaos present were interested in the opt-in mechanism and wanted to learn more about how it would work “while recognizing that this is something new and there is much work still to be done.” The NTC Executive agreed to work closely with the climate change office to advance the project, GINA said.
The release quoted John as saying that “we are forest people, we have been the stewards of these forests all of our lives, while the LCDS is bringing unspeakable benefits that will fast track our development, we must not only see the monetary gains from our involvement but the opportunity to bolster our efforts in preserving our precious resource.” Further, he said that if Norway or any other country is willing to pay the villages “for doing what we have been doing all of our lives then what more can we ask for.”
GINA recalled that during the NTC in August, a resolution supporting the opt-in mechanism was approved by the majority of toshaos who also indicated their full and continued support for the LCDS.
At last week’s meeting, Nokta also updated the NTC delegation on current LCDS projects such as the US$6M Amerindian Development Fund (ADF) that will provide funding for Community Development Plans and projects for Amerindian villages; the Amerindian Land Titling Project; the Micro and Small Enterprise Development, the Building of Alternative Livelihoods for Vulnerable Groups project and other related LCDS initiatives such as the Hinterland Electrification Programme.
The agreement with the Kingdom of Norway could see Guyana earning up to US$250 million in performance based payments up to 2015 for the protection of its rainforest. So far, the allocation of US$70 million has been sitting in a World Bank account awaiting the approval of projects from the Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund (GRIF) Steering Committee. The allocation of US$70 million comprises US$30 million for 2010 and US$40 million for 2011.
