Concordia 2024 Amazonas Summit: Guyana commits to doubling protected areas within 18 months

With Guyana laying down ambitious goals for its biodiversity, such as the doubling of protected areas within 18 months, President Dr Irfaan Ali is also aiming to have biodiversity feature prominently in the global conversation.

President Ali was in attendance during Wednesday’s launch of the second edition of the Concordia Amazonas Initiative, which will take place from July 9-13 in Guyana. The summit seeks to bring leaders together from various sectors and industries, to come up with solutions for preserving the Amazon rainforest.
The launch, which took place at the Baganara Island Resort on the Essequibo River, a few miles from Bartica, also had in attendance former President of Colombia, Ivan Duque, a member of the Concordia Leadership Council, and Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat. In his opening remarks, Duque announced that President Ali had committed to doubling Guyana’s protected areas, which currently cover around 8.4 per cent of the country’s landmass.
“This is the first time that we start a summit, although this is our second summit, with a major announcement… because Guyana has committed to duplicate its protected areas in the course of the next 18 months.”
“Saying that, President Ali has also committed that Guyana reaches 30 per cent of its territory declared legally a protected area by 2030. According to the World Biodiversity agreement that was reached in Montreal, with more than 90 countries,” Duque said.
The former President also praised Guyana’s vision to lead a series of countries on a large-scale biodiversity agenda, which will produce not only a value, but a protection strategy for the short, medium and long term.
“And be rewarded, be supported and be funded by market driven mechanisms associated by nature. SO that plan will be led by President Ali. We’re working so that this agenda becomes part of the G20 conversations. Becomes part of the United Nations General Assembly conversations. And also becomes a very substantial part of the conversation at COP 30.”
Global conversation
When he addressed those gathered, President Ali reinforced the need to carry the conversations on protecting biodiversity globally. He noted Guyana’s success in creating a national biodiversity strategy and noted the transferability of this success on the global stage.
“A lot of work has already started…So, you see [as part of] maintaining Guyana’s forests, what we’re doing is aligning national strategy with global action. It is the same strategy I believe we can develop for biodiversity and to bring all the stakeholders together,” the Head of State said.
According to President Ali, a model must be developed and then proposed to the global community, in an effort to influence change on a worldwide stage and a shifting in the conversation on protecting bio diversity.
“It is a short timeframe; it’s a lot of work, but I think in the interest of the planet, we have to do that. But more importantly, we will be making a major contribution to science. We will be doing all [the] groundwork to develop a model, and then to demonstrate to the world that a model can work at scale,” President Ali further said.
It was only a few days ago that President Ali had announced that the Government will be working closely with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop an Economic model for biodiversity, ecological and climate services in keeping with Guyana’s global commitment to tackle the challenges of climate change, energy sustainability, and food security.
He had made this announcement at the EPA’s 28th Anniversary Dinner and Awards ceremony held on Sunday at the Marriott Hotel where he noted that consultations for the model will commence soon with key stakeholders.
Guyana has already developed a model that promotes avoided deforestation, through the country providing climate services to the world. For instance, as of February, Guyana had earned US$37.5 million from the sale of high-quality carbon credits for 2024 and US$150 million total last year, from the multi-year agreement with United States energy-major Hess Corporation, which carries a total value of US$750 million.
Of the US$150 million (last year), US$22.5 million or 15 per cent went to the indigenous communities – 15 percent of it. These communities have implemented over 800 projects funded by these carbon credits, in hundreds of Indigenous villages. The remainder of this money is being used to fund adaptation measures such as mobile pumps and large canals to move water from the back lands to the Atlantic Ocean among other initiatives. (G3)