Fmr Norwegian Environment Minister praises Guyana’s visionary use of climate funds, forest management

…on 15th anniversary of landmark agreement

The former Norwegian Minister of the Environment, Erik Solheim who, on behalf of his country, signed the Norway agreement with Guyana way back in 2009, has returned for a visit during which he praised Guyana’s visionary use of the funds it received from that agreement.
The former minister, who is presently on a visit to Guyana, was given a tour of communities in Regions Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) and Nine (upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo). In addition to Solheim, the three-day visiting delegation comprised of Representatives of the King’s Foundation, Ben Bolgar, Jeremy Cross and Savini Rajapakse.
During his visit to the village of Annai in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo), Solheim reflected on the last time he was in Guyana 15 years ago, to sign the Guyana/Norway agreement.
“Fifteen years ago, I was honored to sign an agreement between Norway and Guyana, with then President Bharrat Jagdeo, right here in the interior. And now I’m so glad to be back, to see how well the money has been spent. And how much development there is,” Solheim said.

“Because if people cannot encroach upon the forest, of course there must be livelihoods. And the money has been used to make community centres where people can come together, discuss… there is water management, and there is a lot of ecotourism bringing in people who can bring some money and some jobs to this part of Guyana.”
That agreement would lead to the disbursement of over US$200 million and according to Solheim, based on how much things have changed for the better, that money was well spent. He also praised the government’s management of the forests, noting that Guyana is a success story in forest preservation.
“No nation in the entire world has protected its rainforest as fantastic as Guyana. I can see how this marvelous rainforest is absolutely intact. This greatness does not come by itself, it comes by hard work by the Government of Guyana and all the leaders here, most of them from indigenous groups,” Solheim said.
“This is a shining success story the rest of the world can learn from. How to provide alternative livelihoods to people. So that we protect the most wonderful of all eco-systems. The rainforest,” the former Minister added.

Development
Meanwhile, Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat, who accompanied Solheim on the trip, gave further details on the developments the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has been able to bring to hinterland communities.
“Today, all of our hinterland communities, we have communication to the coast, we have Wi-Fi, we are building the new hubs now, which will have even more or improved bandwidth so that the people in the hinterland can benefit from the GOAL (Guyana Online Academy of Learning) scholarships and all the other programmes that the government is doing too,” he said.
Additionally, the residents themselves also spoke of some of the ways they have been spending not only money from the LCDS, but also revenue from the sale of carbon credits. Annai’s Toshao Michael Williams explained the various uses the villages made of the carbon credit funds.
“We were advised to focus on three main things. Food security, income generating programmes and welfare. What we did, with the first tranche, that bus is the first thing we bought. Under the food security, we were thinking about fishermen and employment for people. So, what we did now, we bought two outboard engines.”
“One for fishermen and one for tourism purpose. And then we had to buy two boats as well. And then we were talking about farming, so we bought a chainsaw and a mill. And we knew we were going to tourism and we needed energy, so we bought a generator as well,” he explained.
The Guyana/Norway agreement provided for Guyana to get up to US$250 million by 2015 for avoided deforestation, once certain performance indicators were met. And met they were, with Guyana receiving around US$220 million over the course of the agreement. President Ali recognised that Solheim, who was present at the discussion, had the vision to see the potential for Guyana under the agreement.
The Norway agreement came to an end in 2015 with failure by the previous Coalition Government to have it renewed. Nevertheless, when the current PPP/C Administration returned to office in 2020, it expanded the LCDS and sought certification of some 33.7 million carbon credits from the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) on December 1, 2022.
The Guyana Government subsequently signed a historic multi-year agreement for the sale of its certified carbon credits to United States (US) energy major Hess Corporation to the tune of US$750 million.
The expanded LCDS 2030 meanwhile recently received renewed support from the National Toshaos Council (NTC), comprising of leaders of the indigenous community from all around the country who passed a resolution endorsing the government’s premier plan to aid in combatting climate change.
The resolution, signed onto by majority of the Toshaos attending the NTC Conference in Georgetown last month, states that the NTC is the collective voice and representative body of Indigenous Peoples across Guyana. (G3)