Dear Editor,
I hope that Joel Bhagwandin knows that plants/trees convert atmospheric carbon dioxide into leaves and wood and roots, and also respire carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere as they generate their energy for survival and growth; see his letter ‘The sale of carbon credits to offset carbon emissions does not breach the Amerindian Act’, SN 04 July. On their titled Village Lands, Amerindians have the sovereign rights to fell and use trees and harvest any above-ground resources. As trees are property for Amerindian Villages, so (obviously) is the carbon from which the trees are largely constructed; one tonne of dry tree biomass contains roughly half a tonne of carbon.
The Low Carbon Development Stra-tegy 2030 has a question-answer page on its website. Question 12 asks ‘What is a carbon credit?’. The given answer is ‘A Carbon Credit is an instrument that represents ownership of one metric tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent that can be traded or sold … The Carbon Credits currently being generated by Guyana for verification and sale are from carbon dioxide or equivalent emissions captured by the forest’; https://lcds.gov.gy/question-answer/.
The sale of carbon credits generated on titled Amerindian Land is thus ‘a disposal’ of the property right to the carbon in the trees. No titled Amerindian Village has used the process prescribed in the Amerindian Act to make such a disposal. Therefore I repeat that the sale by the Government of carbon credits from the 2.299 million hectares of natural tropical rainforest on titled Amerindian Lands was fraudulent, a sale of property stolen from the Amerindian peoples.
Reference –
Question 12: What is a carbon credit?
A Carbon Credit is an instrument that represents ownership of one metric tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent that can be traded or sold. Carbon credits are most often created through forestry or agricultural practices, although a credit can be made by nearly any project that reduces, avoids, destroys or captures carbon dioxide or equivalent emissions. The Carbon Credits currently being generated by Guyana for verification and sale are from carbon dioxide or equivalent emissions captured by the forest.
Yours truly,
Janette Bulkan
