Trust or double-dealing: The Guyana-Norway MOU

Introduction

I ended last Sunday’s column with a brief description of the government’s case, which portrays Guyana as a small poor dependent economy confronted with a very difficult international environment yet willing to exchange the global environmental services provided by its pristine forests for compensatory payments through a global exchange mechanism.  I concluded the column with the observation that “if true this would indeed be exceptionally noble.”

In this week’s column I shall assess the validity of this government‘s portrayal of the MOU and the LCDS.  From my perspective the truth is otherwise for several good reasons outlined below.

Lip-service

For one, there is in Guyana no serious sustained and widely disseminated educational/awareness programmes promoting green environmentalism. In particular, the