…to bring 2M hectares of forest under conservation
A few months after President David Granger pledged to allocate two million more hectares of land and waterways for conservation, in keeping with his Government’s commitment to the development of a ‘green economy’ and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, there may be some uncertainty regarding this.
President David Granger has made a commitment to allocate two million more hectares of Guyana’s land and waterways for conservation (Essequibo River, Guyana. Conservation International photo)
Opposition Leader and People’s Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo has questioned whether this will be delivered as the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Foreign Affairs, which met on August 3, 2018 and heard that reclaimed forestry concessions could be considered for protected status.
He was referring to comments made by Head of Planning at the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC), Pradeepa Bholanauth, who hinted to the committee that 1.4 million hectares of land which have reverted to the state forests estate after initially being allocated for forestry concessions under the former administration in areas in the south of Guyana may be considered for protected status.
The lands reclaimed include 680,000 hectares which had been allocated to the Chinese investor Baishanlin International Forest Development Inc, as well as Simon and Shock Inc, and some 392,000 hectares that had been held by another foreign investor, the GFC had revealed.
In a presentation on Guyana’s National Determined Contributions (NDCs) that reflected on Government’s forest sector commitments, Bholanauth said the contributions were categorised in unconditional commitments to be met from existing resources and capacities, and conditional commitments that will be supported by new resources.
Included in the unconditional commitments were improved sustainable forest management and compliance with the code of practice for forest operations, which is provided for in the Forest Act. The code and forest regulations had been tabled in the National Assembly at the end of June.
Meanwhile, the Committee also heard that other conservation areas under Local Government instruments and not only standing forests could potentially make up the two million hectares of forests Granger had committed in 2016 to the global Emissions Reduction Programme (ERP).
To date, Guyana has already committed 8.5 percent of its land space to the ERP. To proceed, extensive consultations with communities, Government agencies, civil society and external donors, among others will be conducted. The entire process, which will involve various assessments, among other things, will be done in stages.
Granger had said Guyana’s proposed commitments, through avoided emissions, can contribute the equivalent of up to 48.7 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide to the global mitigation effort. He said Guyana is prepared to sustainably manage conserve and protect the national patrimony.
Jagdeo has however taken note of the President’s silence on the issue in the past months. He said that he would like to hear from the Guyanese Head of State himself, whether he has any real intention to allocate the two million hectares. The Opposition Leader has also argued that the green economy is not the same as conservation.
“How are they going to get that done? It could mean they are going to take back lands from the people who have forest leases, from miners; and even if they don’t, that would be two million hectares more of our land that we can’t bring into productive use,” he opined.
On that note, the former president blasted the coalition, stating that those responsible for the natural resources sector are incompetent. He claimed that they cannot handle or manage the sector, and may not be able to deliver on the commitment to fight climate change.
In pointing out that Guyana has one of the lowest rates of deforestation, Jagdeo argued that there was no need to convert more of Guyana’s forest. He feels that it could have been utilised in an environmentally friendly way to boost production and ultimately generate revenue for the country and its people.
He recalled that the coalition had criticised the PPP for its Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), but they are now finding it hard to accept the globally lauded initiative.
