Up to December 31 last year, Norway had not deposited the US$45 million that Guyana had qualified for in 2012 under the two countries’ forests protection plan, according to the latest report from the World Bank.
Norway late last year had announced that it will contribute US$45 million to the Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund (GRIF) bringing the total contributions from Oslo under the Norway-Guyana climate and forest partnership to a total of US$115 million since 2009. Former Minister of the Environment and International Development of Norway, Erik Solheim had said that Guyana must justify the need for the funding of new projects in order to trigger the release of additional tranches of funds under the Norway-Guyana agreement and the money already disbursed must be spent before more could be released.
The latest report from the trustee of the GRIF, the World Bank revealed that as of December 31, 2012, cumulative contributions to the GRIF amounted to US$69.8 million- the same as in 2011. Up to that point, based on the GRIF Steering Committee funding decisions, the trustee has recorded a total of US$14.3 million in funding decisions while US$9.2 million was transferred for projects up to December 31.
Director of Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative Per Fredrik Ilsaas Pharo had also said that money already disbursed into the GRIF must be spent before more could be released. “It is correct that according to general rules for disbursement of funds set by the parliament, money cannot be disbursed until a significant portion of the money in the GRIF is utilized,” Pharo had said. “This is a technical aspect of the parliament’s general rules, and not special for Guyana,” he added.
The GRIF is a fund for the financing of activities identified under the Government of Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS).
The Memorandum of Understanding signed between Guyana and Norway in 2009, provides for the provision of REDD+ results-based payments from Norway. Guyana can be paid up to US$250 million up to 2015 for results achieved in keeping its deforestation and forest degradation below an agreed level and progress on REDD+ enabling activities.
