The National Toshaos Council (NTC), in a recent statement, blasted the Office of Climate Change (OCC) for what it said was the lack of engagement of the NTC and the indigenous peoples on the ‘opt-in’ mechanism.
“The National Toshaos Council once again is left in the dark and without the much needed support to execute its mandate by the Government of Guyana,” the statement read before going on to highlight several instances in which it said that the OCC failed to properly engage the NTC.
Attempts to contact the OCC in relation to the NTC’s concerns were unsuccessful.
In one instance, the NTC claimed it was invited to attend a meeting with Presidential Advisor on the Environment, Admiral Gary Best to discuss the opt-in mechanism, however, with minimum inputs from the NTC taken onboard, the NTC saw the process move into different phases without consideration given to the inputs of the indigenous peoples.
“Throughout the year, the NTC had not heard anything as it relates to the opt-in mechanism,” the statement said, adding that though the OCC was invited to attend the National Toshaos Conference, an invitation generated out of requests by the majority of the 212-plus indigenous communities, it was a no show.
More recently, the statement said, the NTC was invited to an engagement with the North Rupununi District Development Board to seek information on the opt-in mechanism which was hastily ended due to a lack of information.
As of December 5, the NTC had heard nothing from the OCC until a letter was presented inviting the NTC to attend an opt-in awareness mission at Muritaro on December 6, one day after uplifting the mail.
“The lateness of the invitation would suggest it was issued without any intention of having the NTC be part of the team and a sign of great disrespect to the indigenous peoples of Guyana.
To support that point, with the lack of budgetary allocations for the NTC, the Office of Climate Change has stated that they cannot pay for some basics such as taxi, nor meals for the NTC nor the added night in Georgetown for one of its members as a result of the late notification, yet they can dole out large sums for consultants that would equate to decades of stipends for indigenous leaders,” the statement said.
“Given the gravity, the potential impact, and implications of opt in on the indigenous peoples and their way of life, the NTC is extremely disturbed by the process that seems to be driven without due consideration to the indigenous peoples whose lives will be directly affected and the lack of free prior and informed consent,” it added.
In November 2009, Guyana and Norway signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for funding of up to US$250 million over five years. The MoU provides performance-related finance to implement Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy, a national plan to reorient Guyana’s economy on to a low–carbon path.
Under this strategy it was expected that Guyana would harness REDD+ finance to make strategic investments to reduce emissions in the energy and transportation sector, along with fostering the development of alternative low-carbon industries to move the economy away from extractive industries.
Stemming from this agreement, is the opt-in mechanism which presents an opportunity for those titled indigenous villages with forests to voluntarily include their forests, if they so wish, into the model and in so doing receive payments based on performance.
