| By Zena Henry Local government officials are insisting that Norway’s choice of Guyana in the multi-million-dollar cash for forest protection deal was based on Guyana’s High Forest Low Deforestation (HFLD) benefits.Former President Bharrat JagdeoThe officials said that the country was eminently qualified despite its growing international reputation as a country rife with corruption and despite the fact that the two nations barely had any diplomatic or other ties before a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed back in 2009.Head of the Climate Change Unit and Advisor to the President, Shyam Nokta, told Kaieteur News, “The Governments of Norway and Guyana have entered into what is now the world’s second largest Interim REDD+ scheme and the first national-scale effort, with Guyana being one of few countries in the world that is being paid for the climate services our forests provide;”Brazil and Indonesia being the only other two nations with similar schemes.Both Brazil and Indonesia, Nokta stated, are countries with historically high deforestation rates and therefore progress in such countries is essential if greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation are to be reduced.He charged that approximately 25 per cent of the world’s forest carbon can be found in HFLD countries, and Guyana is one of those.The international community, Nokta continued, agreed that models are needed to avoid deforestation in HFLD countries to prevent “leakage” from neighbour countries. In “The Joint Concept Note (JCN) between Guyana and Norway, both countries emphasized the importance of having functioning REDD+ schemes in countries such as Guyana.”Nokta said, “Guyana is unique in that former President Bharrat Jagdeo set out a vision whereby Guyana did not just aim to keep deforestation low, but a low carbon economy was envisioned where payments received would be invested in clean energy, Amerindian peoples development,Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale, assistance for vulnerable groups and other areas outlined in the LCDS which would help to address livelihood opportunities for Guyanese, protect and maintain forests, and build resilience toHead of the Climate Change Unit, Shyam Nokta.climate change.”He added that so far, Guyana has earned US$115 million in payments for forest climate services through the Norway partnership and the payments,nba jerseys discount, along with national and other sources of financing are being channeled to implement projects outlined in the LCDS.The Norway partnership has incredibly high ambitions “to create a model for the world on how we can align national development and combat climate change. In the process of building this REDD+ model we are breaking new ground,” Nokta opined.“Our partnership remains strong and both partners remain committed to building a REDD+ model that we hope can help to influence how the world addresses the issue of forests and climate change.”An article dated March 14, last, by a Norwegian writer, Chris Lang, however raised eyebrows and prompted a Government response when he expressed his oblivion as to how Guyana was chosen for the US multi-million dollar climate project given Guyana and Norway’s non- relation atmosphere and Guyana’s international reputation of being corrupt.Lang, through redd-monitor.org., argued that, “Guyana is a very corrupt country, ranking 133rd in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2012. Yet Norway has no one in the country to monitor where its REDD aid is going. In a 2012 article in Development Today,Air Max 90 Saldi, Lars Løvold of Rainforest Foundation Norway argued that Norway should have chosen the vast forests of the Congo Basin instead of Guyana.”The article’s context said that Heidi Bjørkto Bade, a student at the University of Oslo, completed a case study of the Norway-Guyana REDD+ partnership under the title,mlb jerseys china, “Aid in a rush” and described the Norway-Guyana partnership as “both surprising and groundbreaking, given that Norway has minimal knowledge about Guyana and no former official presence.Her conclusion on why Guyana was chosen by the Scandinavian nation, Bade charged,Air Max Canada, “Was a political one, made, to a large extent by Erik Solheim, Norway’s then-Minister of both Environment and International Development.”Norway’s former Environment and International Development Minister Erik Solheim.She said that Norway’s Freedom of Information legislation enabled her to get some information, but many of the documents she asked for, “have been classified as ‘exempted from the public,Wholesale Jerseys China,’” especially documents about on-going processes.She however said that Jagdeo “played a key role in pushing for the deal with Norway,” while, “officials in Norway told Bade that Jagdeo, to a large extent, still governs from behind the scenes.”The former President somehow seemed to be a charmer; being able to persuade Norwegian officials into filling the nation’s pockets for its forest services, since according to Bade’s report, Solheim’s comments on Jagdeo were that “he invoked confidence, there was no doubt that he meant what he said.”Norwegian stallholders have however viewed Norway’s move towards Guyana as being “quite naive”, while another official described the partnership as “bad aid”.Solheim said,”Guyana is among the most corrupt countries in the world. Jagdeo was steering it like his own farm. They don’t even have a law for public procurements!”Under the Interim REDD+ arrangement, Guyana can earn up to US$250M by 2015. For this, former President Jagdeo was awarded the United Nations prize of Champions of the Earth for what was described as his leadership in environmental conservation. |
