Govt calls out APA for attempts to bias ART TREES’ certification process

…Independent verification rejects complaint; APA withdraws appeal

An appeal that was filed by the Amerindian Peoples’ Association (APA), which has been seeking to bring a halt to Guyana’s carbon credit programme through which the country and Amerindian communities receive payments for the forests, has since been withdrawn and the Government is calling out the Association for what it said are attempts to bias the process.
Back in May of this year, an Independent Reviewer had examined APA’s complaint against the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions’ (ART) decision to certify Guyana’s forest carbon. At the time, the Independent Reviewer had found that APA’s case lacked merit and that Guyana did follow the correct process.
“In May 2023, the Independent Reviewer who examined the APA’s complaint, concluded that the process set forth in the ART Standards was followed by Guyana, and that concerns expressed by the APA were not supported facts and, in several cases, inaccurate, and, further, that specific issues pointed to in the APA’s submission did not reflect an understanding of the role of the ART Standard,” a statement from the Office of the Vice President said.

“The Independent Verification concluded with a rejection of the complaint made by the APA, as well as its associated call for the suspension of Guyana’s ART-TREES carbon credits. Further, the Independent Reviewer concluded that the APA’s claims that it had not been appropriately consulted on Guyana’s ART-TREES issuance process, were verifiably false,” the statement added.
According to the office of the Vice President, APA has since expressed dissatisfaction with the failure of its appeal filed in June of 2023, which the office said was a seeming attempt to bias the ART process. According to the office, APA is effectively trying to stop the carbon credit revenues and now that their appeal has been withdrawn, is trying to taint the process.
“In its Release dated October 27, 2023, the APA expressed dissatisfaction that the ART Secretariat has not given in to its machinations, which seemingly attempted to bias the ART process with several of APA’s demands. The APA’s appeal was tabled in July 2023, and followed its first failed attempt at stopping Guyana’s ART Trees crediting, which effectively meant stopping carbon credits revenues flowing to Amerindian Villages.”
“The original complaint by the APA and the recent Appeal which has now failed, were both done in secret and without the knowledge or support of any Indigenous communities in Guyana, and without the knowledge or support of any of their elected leaders. Once the existence of the complaint (March 2023) and the Appeal (July 2023) were made public (by other parties, not by the APA), not a single Indigenous community supported it,” the office said.
Importantly, it was pointed out that the National Toshaos Council (NTC) spoke up on behalf of Indigenous communities to ensure that their voices would be heard and to support the carbon credit programme.
“The NTC is comprised of leaders from every Indigenous community in Guyana. Those leaders are elected by their own communities, unlike those of the APA. The NTC continues to speak up on behalf of communities across the country, including raising issues with the Government to ensure that communities receive the benefits from the sale of carbon credits that they rightly expected.”
“At the recently held NTC Council Conference in August 2023, there was no support expressed for the APA’s appeal. The question arose at the time of the complaint in March 2023 and again at the time of the Appeal in July 2023, as to who the APA is purporting to represent and whether there has been Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) by Amerindian Villages.”

Withdrawal
In their statement after withdrawing their appeal, APA had accused ART Secretariat of refusing to “employ a fair, independent and transparent complaint mechanism.” According to the Office of the Vice President, however, APA in filing its appeal failed to seek the free, prior and informed consent of the very Amerindian villages they claimed to represent.”
“Meanwhile, Guyana has earned US$150 million in payments from the sale of ART-TREES credits for the year 2023. A total of 85% of this money is being invested in multi-community and national priorities identified by stakeholders during the seven-month consultation on the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) 2030,” the office said.
“A total of 242 communities have completed Village Plans to the standards required by village-led processes. In all cases, the village processes must culminate with a vote of approval from at least two-thirds of all adult villagers present at village meetings (in many villages, support has been unanimous). All 242 communities have their own carbon credit bank accounts and finance committees chosen by villagers and community members.”