Government’s move to open new lands for mining is likely to increase deforestation and this could impact the deal under which Norway is paying Guyana to protect its forest, with the Scandinavian country last week reiterating that its focus is on keeping deforestation rates down.
Guyana is already facing cuts in payments from Oslo after its deforestation rate for 2012 rose above a benchmark set under the five-year partnership which ends next year. Under the partnership, Guyana can be paid up to US$250 million by 2015 for results achieved in keeping its deforestation and forest degradation below an agreed level and progress on REDD+ enabling activities.
However, alarm over the recent drop in gold declarations has seen government moving to open areas across the country for mining with auctions and lotteries for lands due to take place in the next few weeks. Gold exports amounted to US$648.5 million last year and Chairman of the Guyana Gold Board Gobind Ganga has said that the decline for the first five months of this year has seen Guyana losing about US$100 million in foreign exchange and approximately $1.5 billion in royalty and taxes.
Meanwhile, under the pact with Norway, thus far, Guyana has only earned US$115 million with payments last being announc-ed in 2011. Months into negotiations for Year 3 (2012) payments, Oslo and Georgetown are yet to reach agreement. In the previous year, the payment was announced shortly after the confirmation of deforestation rates butthis has not been the case for 2012.
With the partnership due to end next year, the move to open new lands for mining could complicate discussions for an extension and observers say that the sloth in the discussions for the 2012 payment signals Oslo’s disenchantment with Guyana’s rising deforestation rate. Guy-ana’s deforestation rate jumped to 0.079% in 2012 from 0.054% in the 2011 with mining again being the largest driver of deforestation. Further, halfway through the final year of the partnership, no discussions have started on extending the pact, though previously, both parties articulated a desire to do so.
“The two countries are not currently discussing an extension. Norway’s attention remains focused on keeping the deforestation down and addressing the drivers of deforestation,” Communication Adviser for Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative (NCFI) Gunhild Oland Santos-Nedrelid told Stabroek News. “These will be important issues when discussions on extending the partnership commence,” she added.
Meantime, quizzed by Stabroek News about the issue during a news conference at State House on Saturday, President Donald Ramotar said that detailed discussions will commence with Norway when the UN General Assembly meets in September. The president was also asked about balancing mining with Guyana’s commitments to protect the forest under the partnership as well as its international advocacy for the protection of forests.
“We are trying our best to minimize some of the huge destruction
n of the forest by trying to give more information and so forth about any kind of studies about soils and so forth and when people are mining, to try to mine as close as possible to the vicinity of the area that they are gonna be looking at,” Ramotar said noting that the forest is monitored very closely. “I think one of the areas that we will probably be looking at is to do more…of the prospecting beforehand so that you could have a better idea about what to do,” he added. Government has spoken about moving in this direction over the past years but has made little progress.
Further, the president said, the authorities are going to help small-scale miners as much as possible to rehabilitate mined-out land while they hope that medium-scale operators will stand part of the expense with government providing some material. Large scale miners will have to restore the forest on their own, he said, emphasising that what they want is to minimise the areas that could be damaged and try to do things in a better way while at the same time, monitor to see that mining activities are not done in a big and excessive way.
The president did not directly respond to a question regarding the reason for the sloth in wrapping up discussions for 2012 payments, saying only that government too is frustrated.
Santos-Nedrelid, in an emailed response to questions from Stabroek News said that Oslo and Georgetown have not concluded the discussions on how the 2012 results on deforestation and progress of enabling indicators will influence that year’s payment. “Increased deforestation will lead to reduced payments. The deforestation for 2012 was reported and verified to be 0.079 % leading to a reduction of the payment as described in the Joint Concept Note. The exact amount will be announced when the ongoing discussions between Guyana and Norway are concluded,” she said.
“The current partnership between Guyana and Norway ends in 2015. The two countries are not
currently discussing an extension. Norway’s attention remains focused on keeping the deforestation down and addressing the drivers of deforestation. These will be important issues when discussions on extending the partnership commence,” she added.
As to whether there was any concern on Norway’s part that companies are increasing their logging operations in Guyana and the move to open up new areas for mining, Santos-Nedrelid emphasised that at the core of the REDD+ partnership is keeping deforestation low in Guyana. “Guyana’s rain forest is one of the oldest on the planet and its value in the form of wildlife, plants and beauty is immeasurable. The forest is also storing carbon and takes part in regulating the local and global climate. Norway is providing economic incentives for keeping the deforestation in Guyana low. The core of REDD+ is that these incentives will help a country regulate and reduce the negative impact of any forest related activity,” the Norwegian official said.
Meantime, head of Conservation International-Guyana Dr David Singh said that opening up new lands for mining should be based on a determination that these areas are productive. “It’s not about opening up new lands, it’s about enabling the mining sector to be more productive,” he told Stabroek News. Dr Singh, noting that there would be a trade-off of forest conservation benefits for revenues that Guyana can get from mining, added that there really ought to be a mechanism to ensure that the trade-off would be positive in the long run.
The conservationist asserted that it is important before lands are opened up for mining, that there should be some means of assessing that reserves are present. If this is not done, he said, this would not help to address issues of livelihood and poverty and as well, could be continuing a cycle of too much dependence on one sector to fuel the economy.
Dr Singh also emphasised that the root cause of the decline in gold declarations should be determined and based on the findings, the appropriate action should be taken. He said that if the root cause is lack of land, then this is the right approach. However, he also pointed to the low productivity of current operations in recovering gold and said that unless the root cause is ascertained, then it is a “band-aid” approach. “We should spend the effort to find out what the root causes are,” he emphasised. He said while this is being done, it is not being applied on the ground. He also acknowledged that a challenge is the time it would take to ascertain the root cause of the decline and the urgency of the matter.
“The urgency with which we have to address the economy and livelihood maybe not be in sync with the time it takes to understand these root causes,” he observed.
The conservationist also noted that Guyana’s strong international advocacy bring an important aspect to the issue. It is an opportune moment, the official said, for the authorities to demonstrate that they have acknowledged that the deforestation rate has increased and that concrete steps are going to be taken to address it.
Further, the CI official said, the impact that the drop in gold declarations is having on Guyana’s economy underscores the importance of having a diversified economy which could withstand fluctuations in gold prices. He said that unfortunately, the windfall from high gold prices in the previous years have not been sufficiently used to buffer the economy.
