GSDS being reviewed by Cabinet – Harmon

…says National Oil Spill Plan also being reviewed

By Jarryl Bryan

After a long interval, the Green State Development Strategy (GSDS) has been presented to Cabinet, with public consultations on the document expected to begin soon after.
This is according to Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, who was at the time addressing the media at a post-Cabinet briefing. He noted that the presentation detailed to the Ministers how the Strategy would work.
“Cabinet received a presentation of the Green State Development Strategy, which was proposed as an economic development strategy for the Guyanese people, which provided a vision and a model for development over a 20-year period from 2020 to 2040,” Harmon related.
“Cabinet was advised that the Strategy had as its key objectives managing the natural wealth resources, supporting economic resilience, green inclusiveness, and economic diversification. The presentation also detailed the manner in which the Strategy would be implemented and the expected benefits to various sectors of society as well as its overall impact on the future sustainable development of Guyana as a green state.”
According to Harmon, the entire Cabinet thereafter made a decision that the next step would be to present the Strategy for public consultations and review. Pressed for information on exactly when these consultations would be held, Harmon said that they would be early in 2019.
“In fact, there were two sets of deliberations done at Cabinet,” Harmon related. “It (the GSDS) is now being fine-tuned and once that is done, Cabinet approves of the adjustments made, it will go out for the public consultations and review.”
When the GSDS was first introduced, it was billed as a framework that would “build” on the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) designed by the previous Administration to protect the environment while receiving financing.
According to the framework document, a critical element will be the sustainable management of natural resources. In fact, one of the Strategy’s goals is the mandatory reforestation of mining sites.
According to the document, it will aim to “conserve an additional two million hectares through Guyana’s National Protected Area System, continuing to use its monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) system”.
It also plans on “continuing promotion of the Iwokrama as a dedicated place for research “to develop, demonstrate, and make available to Guyana and the international community systems, methods and techniques for the sustainable management and utilisation of the multiple resources of the Tropical Forest and the conservation of biological diversity.”
In the document, it is stated that a combination of conservation and sustainable management of forests will form the crux of the Strategy. It is noted that attracting additional international support for avoided deforestation through reforms in timber industries will include reduced-impact logging.
The framework document had initially stated that the elements of the Strategy would be examined and consulted on since last year. Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has been strong in criticising the framework.
The LCDS, which the coalition Government says the GSDS is built on, was Jagdeo’s brainchild as President. According to the Opposition Leader, a major issue with the GSDS is that unlike the LCDS, it lacks strategies for Guyana to earn revenue.

Oil spill plan
On the matter of the National Oil Spill Plan, Harmon informed reporters that the document was still being reviewed by the Department of Energy. In fact, he said the Department was reviewing all matters related to the oil and gas sector.
“Having access to additional capacities and capabilities in that agency, the plan, of course, is going through several changes now. Since then we’ve had a new head of the Environmental Protection Agency.
“And he has brought on board some very important skills in looking at these issues,” Harmon continued. “So, I believe in a very short space of time, we’ll be able to tell you where that is. But I know it is going through some additional reviews based on these new skillsets.”
In October, energy expert and scientist Dr Vincent Adams was appointed Executive Director of the EPA. His appointment came at a time when questions were being raised about the agency’s ability to regulate oil companies in Guyana, from an environmental stand point.