Dear Editor,
According to Joel Bhagwandin in his letter ‘Bulkan’s position, supported by Brandli, that the sale of carbon credit is fraudulent is preposterous’ (SN 10 July 2023), any claim that only an Amerindian Village Council has the legal authority to make decisions on leasing ‘any interest’ in Amerindian Village Lands is preposterous. I refer Mr. Bhagwandin to Sections 13, 14, 15, 34 and 44 of the Amerindian Act (cap. 29:01, 2006) which lay out the procedures for disposing of ‘any interest’ (section 44 (2)) in any legally titled Village Land. Section 13 empowers the elected Village Council to (d) hold for the benefit and use of the Village all rights, titles and interests in or over Village lands; (e) manage and regulate the use and occupation of Village lands; (f) promote the sustainable use, protection and conservation [of] Village lands and the resources on those lands; Section 14 (1) empowers the Village Council to make rules for (d) the management, use, preservation, protection and conservation of Village lands and resources or any part thereof; …
Section 15 requires that ‘A rule, and any amendment to a rule, made by a Village Council comes into effect when – (a) the Village Council has consulted the Village in general meeting and two-thirds of the members of the Village general meeting have given their approval; and (b) the rule has been approved by the Minister and published in the Gazette. The two-thirds voting threshold also applies to Village decisions on mining (section 48 (1)) and logging (section 55 (1)(e)).
Section 34 (2) requires that all decisions required to be made by a Village under this Act shall be made in a Village general meeting, by consensus or by majority vote. However, if the decision is to do with a previously passed rule then section 15 requirement for a two-thirds majority vote applies. Section 44 is explicit – (1) A Village Council shall not dispose or attempt to dispose of any interest, right or title in Village lands except as provided in this Act, and (2) Any attempt to dispose of any right, title or interest in Village lands, except as provided in this Act, is void. The National Toshaos’ Council has its role in advising on Village strategies (section 41 (d) and (e)) but cannot usurp the powers of a Village itself. Mr. Derrick John, Chair of the National Toshaos’ Conference (NTC), has repeatedly expressed his satisfaction with the government-led consultations on the Low Carbon Development Strategy 2030. In his letter published in SN on 25 December 2022, Mr. John wrote: “At the meeting of all village leaders in July 2022 (the National Toshaos’ Council Conference), this support for jurisdictional scale engagement on carbon markets and benefits sharing mechanism of 15% of all revenues, with no deduction of costs, to go to the Amerindian communities, was unanimously agreed to. A resolution was passed by this national representative body of Amerindian Leaders, the National Toshaos’ Council, to express this agreement”.
Readers should note that Mr. John did not say that the NTC had given legal consent. Such consent can only be given, village by village, in accordance with the procedure laid out in the Amerindian Act and cited above. The Resolution signed by Mr. Derrick John and 13 members of the NTC’s Executive Council on 15 July 2022 ended with the following words: – “Communities are free to opt into this dedicated revenue mechanism for local communities – No deadline will be set for opting in. Support by the National Toshao’s [sic] Council Executive Com-mittee. Resolution on Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (2030)”. Editor, there is an important related issue: Annex C of the 1965 Independence Agreement required the independent government to provide legal ownership or rights of occupancy for Amerindians over – ‘areas and reservations or parts thereof where any tribe or community of Amerindians is now ordinarily resident or settled and other legal rights, such as rights of passage, in respect of any other lands they now by tradition or custom de facto enjoy freedoms and permissions corresponding to rights of that nature. In this context, it is intended that legal ownership shall comprise all rights normally attaching to such ownership’ (Annex C, Section L, of the 1965 Independence Agreement; Letwiniuk 1996:51).
On 1 December 2022 the Winrock subsidiary, ART-TREES, issued 33.47 million carbon credits derived from the whole of Guyana forest area as requested by the Guyana Forestry Commission and on the same day the Hess Corporation announced that it would purchase 2.5 million credits per year for 15 years. Amerindians and others (including me) have pointed out that the government can only sell a good or interest derived from titled Amerindian Village Lands with the legal permission to do so, supplied by the legal owner. So, Editor, Mr. Bhagwandin could not be more wrong. May I clarify for Mr. Bhagwandin that I do have some credibility on Amerindian issues, having been a faculty member of the Amerindian Research Unit at the University of Guyana during 1985-2000; having travelled for research and in support of locally-managed development over many parts of the hinterland from the mid-1980s; having been senior social scientist at Iwokrama during 2000-2003; and through continued research on the societies’ and rights of Indigenous Peoples in my current university position.
Sincerely,
Janette Bulkan
