Guyana successfully presented its case for compensation for standing rainforests to the just-concluded Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Kampala, Uganda.
Guyana is to also press this case for further acceptance at the United Nations Climate Change Conference which gets underway in Bali, Indonesia from December 3 to December 14, 2007.
“Our team that goes to Bali would have to press on with this in the post-Kyoto [period],” President Bharrat Jagdeo told the media at a press conference at the Office of the President on Thursday following his return from the CHOGM.
And Guyana is prepared to be monitored by an international group to see that it is complying with sustainable forestry management practices when it would have deployed the majority of its rainforests in the battle against climate change.
Jagdeo said his proposal to put Guyana’s rainforests for global environmental services in exchange for compensation was accepted. In addition, the proposal that compensation for standing forests be calculated through a market driven mechanism among Commonwealth member states was also accepted with the Co-Chair for the Rainforest Coalition, Papua New Guinea being very supportive.
“Guyana presented a strong case,” he said noting that trading of carbon credits in Europe now exceeds US$30 billion and it was estimated that this would go up over time to US$300 billion.
He said once Guyana was compensated for its standing forests; there would be no pressure to exploit the forest resources. However, he said, Guyana would continue mining and forestry using sustainable practices.
Stating that there should be a mechanism to address tropical deforestation, which is a major contributor to climate change and contributes up some 18% to 20% of greenhouse gases, he said opposition to any post-Kyoto mechanism on preserving rainforests would be shortsighted and would give the impression that they were not serious about climate change. Preserving the rainforests, he stated, is a cost-effective way of addressing climate change.
Jagdeo had initially announced at the opening of the Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meeting in Georgetown in October that he had made the proposal to deploy Guyana’s rainforest in the fight against climate change to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Since this was made public in Guyana, he said, he has further discussed the issue with Blair’s successor Gordon Brown.
Guyana’s offer to deploy the country’s rainforests for environmental services and for compensation has stirred up a lot of controversy, he said, because of ignorance or cheap politicking.
However, he added that the government sought to correct any misconceptions on the issue and reiterated that Guyana would “not now or never cede sovereignty over its forests” neither would it sell a single area of the forests.
Guyana, he said, would continue sound forest and mining practices while being still a huge carbon sink to the rest of the world. Guyana, he maintained, traps a range of greenhouse gases because even in logged out areas the forest canopy was not broken because of the kind of sustainable forestry practices that Guyana ensures and through large national parks and areas under conservation.
A market-based mechanism, he said, could provide hundreds of millions of dollars to countries like Guyana, totaling more than the country exports if the market mechanism gets going.
The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association has also asked him to attend its meeting to address parliamentarians on climate change and how all could get involved, he said.
