Norway payment to drop

Verification of Guyana’s deforestation figures for 2012 has confirmed a rate of 0.079%, a figure at which cuts in payments to Guyana under the forests protection partnership with Norway are expected to kick in.

When the initial figures were released last year, Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment Robert Persaud had said that once increased deforestation is confirmed by independent verification exercises, Guyana will lose out on around US$20 million of the payment it would have received for Year 3 (2012) under the forest protection agreement.

The preliminary report on deforestation rates for the year 2012 compiled by the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) and the