Conservation International (CI) yesterday called for a continuation of the bilateral agreement between Guyana and Norway as it congratulated both countries on the fourth year forest climate payment.
It was announced last week that Guyana is to receive US$35 million—the fourth performance payment from the Norwegian Govern-ment under the Climate Change and Biodiversity Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
According to a CI press release, its Executive Vice-Chair Dr Russell Mittermeier noted that Guyana has a high forest cover and low deforestation rate. Its bilateral relationship with Norway is an example of how wealthy developed nations can work closely with developing countries to build sustainable economies while addressing climate change, the release quoted Mittermeier as saying. He said he hoped Guyana and Norway saw sufficient value in their relationship to renew their MoU for a second commitment as they both have shown incredible leadership.
Although much has been achieved, CI said, there is still a great deal more to be done and called greater global efforts to combat climate change under the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+)
Vice President of CI and Executive Director of CI-Guyana Dr David Singh said Guyana has continued to demonstrate how to have an effective monitoring, reporting and verification system on national deforestation and forest degradation from which the world can learn.
Guyana’s economy is heavily dependent on the extractive industry, CI said, and it is as a result of this, deforestation and forest degradation occur. It is for this reason, the Norway relationship is important as it allows for transformative investment which manages natural resources to such a degree that the critical natural capital is secured.
It had been reported last year that Guyana stood to lose around US$20 million of the payment it would have received under its forest protection agreement with Norway for 2012, as a result of an increase in its deforestation rate, which jumped to 0.079% in the Year 3 reporting period (2012), from 0.054% in the Year 2 reporting period (2011).
The Guyana/Norway agreement comes to an end next year. Under the terms of the deal Norway had committed to providing up to US$250 million based on independent verifications of Guyana’s deforestation and forest degradation rates and progress on REDD+ enabling activities.
