Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat yesterday tabled in the National Assembly the Guyana-EU Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Voluntary Partnership Agreement or VPA.
This will pave the way for greater cooperation and increase market access and market share with the European Union (EU), a release from the ministry said.
This agreement was initialled in 2018 in Brussels. The VPA was then signed in December 2022 in Montreal, Canada by Bharrat, and finally tabled yesterday. In November 2022, the Natural Resources Minister at COP27 in Egypt signed a Forest Partnership Agree-ment with the EU for €5 million to support sustainable livelihood in forest-based communities. The agreement was formally handed to President Irfaan Ali in March of this year. Guyana is the first country to sign both the VPA and a Forest Partnership Agreement, the release said.
