A delegation sent to conduct a real time evaluation of the Norwegian Global Initiative on Climate Change and Forestry in Guyana is impressed with the ‘mass acceptance’ of Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), the Government Information Agency (GINA) reported.
The team led by Dr Pete Hardcastel a forester and consultant, met President Bharrat Jagdeo a weeklast Thursday at the Guyana International Conference Centre (GICC) after concluding a baseline assessment of their four-year assignment. “One of the things that we found is that everybody that we have met, without exception, has been supportive of the Low Carbon Development Strategy,” Dr Hardcastle was quoted as saying.
Its wide-based concept is enough conviction for the strategy to be genuinely and universally accepted as an initiative good for Guyana, he said. “We feel that’s a good starting point and its implementation is something that we should all need to learn about as things start moving forward,” he added.
Dr Hardcastle was accompanied in his visit to the President by Political Scientist, Dr Deborah Davenport and Forest Ecology Specialist, Dr Phillipa Lincoln, GINA said.
The visit to Guyana is one of a series of five national level assessments to determine Norway’s impact on climate change and forestry at the sub-national, national and global levels. The other countries include Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Indonesia.
Norway has partnered with Guyana to achieve one of the first attempts between a developed and a developing country to work together to implement a national scale model on how forests can be deployed to address climate change without compromising sovereignty or national development priorities. Norway has promised up to US$30M this year and “within a matter of months” the money will be coming to Guyana, GINA said.
Hardcastle told GINA that the team hopes to return at least thrice during the course of the four-year assignment.
Meantime, a Deutsche Welle TV crew was in Guyana the week before last, working on a documentary focusing on the efforts of developing countries in tackling climate change which it expects to be aired around Europe by mid September.
Journalist Christoph Kober and cameraman Axel Warnstedt recently concluded a venture to the Rupununi where they were able to discover the social life of the Amerindians and the operations of logging concessions, GINA reported. They met Jagdeo on Thursday and were educated on the concept and rationale behind Guyana’s development model during a one on one interview at the GICC, GINA said.
Jagdeo spoke of the international support which Guyana has received for its revolutionary strategy, making reference to Norway which has been recognised for its stance on forest protection, GINA reported. He, however, lamented the lengthy time taken by some international financial institutions to process financial transfer mechanisms and the impacts which such mundane moves have on development projects, GINA said.
