– Persaud
Remarks by Surinamese Minister of Forestry and Land Michael Pierre Jong Tjien Fa on Guyana’s forest agreement with Norway are “unfortunate and ill advised”, Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud says.
In a strongly worded statement on Friday, Persaud pointed to an article headlined “Suriname will not give up sovereignty for money”, which was attributed Fa and which according to Persaud, “makes very unfortunate and ill advised remarks on Guyana’s landmark MOU with Norway”.
The statements are disturbing coming shortly after two important meetings in Manaus and the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Trinidad where Guyana’s leading role in the whole climate change agenda was applauded by both developed and developing nations, as well as the Secretary General’s of the United Nations (UN) and UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Persaud said. He declared that with Suriname being a High Forest cover Low Deforestation rate (HFLD) country like Guyana, “it is expected that Suriname would be fully supportive of this innovative MOU between Guyana and Norway, which provides financial incentives for standing forests, including sustainably managed forests; something which other HFLD countries had been trying to achieve now for decades, but without any measurable success”.
Persaud’s statement said that it is abundantly clear that the Surinamese minister has failed to recognize that by simply being a participant country in the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), Suriname “needs to follow the pioneering path that has been blazed by Guyana for it to reap any tangible benefits”.
He said that Fa’s statement reported in the media contradicts that of other Surinamese forest sector officials, who do not share the same view.
He pointed out that this week, three Surinamese representatives attended a Food and Agriculture Organisation sponsored regional workshop on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) in Guyana to share experiences and to learn from the major advances made over the years by Guyana – inclusive of the MOU with Norway.
Additionally, Persaud said, in March, five senior officers from the SBB (Suriname’s equivalent of the Guyana Forestry Commission) spent several days here with the express purpose of learning more about the user friendly guidelines for Sustainable Forest Management (SFM); forest law enforcement and governance and other aspects of Guyana’s forest management principles and their application. The Forestry Training Centre Inc of Guyana has also provided regular training of personnel in Suriname, his statement said. He added that this is a small representation of the numerous efforts that Guyana has made to assist and encourage Suriname to raise its SFM standards and be recognized internationally for same.
Persaud’s statement asserted that the Surinamese Minister has not carefully read the MOU “that he is so unjustifiably critical of” and had he done so, he would have noted that there is absolutely no loss of sovereignty.
He noted that payments are linked to clearly defined deliverables — if Guyana fails to meet these, then the country either get no payments or reduced payments.
Additionally, he noted that there is no obligation to stop any mining (inclusive of oil) or forestry activity. He said that contrary to Fa’s claims of US$250 million over 15 years, it is a minimum of US$250 million coming to Guyana in 5 years. “The MOU cannot be read in isolation of Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy or the World Bank FCPF’s reference level methodology as contained in the Readiness Preparation Plan,” Persaud’s statement said.
According to him, Guyana has been able to achieve all of these internationally applauded successes because of government’s clear policy to ensure that resources are used in keeping with the guidelines for SFM. Persaud stated that stakeholders have fully supported the initiatives and the result is that Guyana can now go on the international scene and negotiate on equal footing at both multilateral and bilateral fronts.
He declared that the Surinamese minister should publicly indicate whether he has an issue with Suriname going through a similar process, especially in the areas of forest governance and transparent systems of forest land allocation.
“Rather than being unjustifiably critical and showing ignorance of these matters, the Surinamese minister should do like his colleagues in other countries and try to learn as fast as is possible, what Guyana is doing to make its initiatives so very highly successful.
He should also seek clarification on issues that he is not clear on,” Persaud declared.
