Parties surprised by forest offer

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56531142

Parties surprised by forest offer
By Miranda La Rose
Stabroek News, Wednesday, October 17th 2007

Winston Murray

Surprise was the common reaction among the parliamentary political
parties yesterday to the offer by President Bharrat Jagdeo on Monday
night to deploy almost the entire rainforest of the country in the
climate change battle.

The President made the disclosure at the opening of the Commonwealth
Finance Ministers Meeting (CFMM) and even his party, the PPP, was
unaware of it though former British Prime Minister Tony Blair had been
told about it last year.

Yesterday, no one questioned the country's commitment to fight climate
change but the parliamentary opposition expressed surprise at the
announcement since there had been no parliamentary or other
consultation.

Though the party had not been aware of it, PPP General Secretary Donald
Ramotar told Stabroek News yesterday that the preservation of the
rainforests was always a PPP government policy long before Jagdeo took
office.

Asked about the offer, PNCR Chairman Winston Murray, AFC Leader Raphael
Trotman and GAP-ROAR MP Everall Franklin said they all knew of the
offer on Monday evening when Jagdeo announced it at the National
Cultural Centre.


Murray told Stabroek News that it was the kind of offer that requires a
national discussion especially among the parliamentary parties.

"With such a national asset as forestry," he suggested that the
government put out a 'white paper' in an effort to allow others to make
their contributions and so that people could see the benefits that
could be derived from such an investment.

"Clearly any arrangement must be without prejudice to the rights of the
Amerindians to have access and to use the resources of the forests," he
said.

Since the contents of the offer are not known, Murray said that "if it
means alienation of the forests, the PNCR would never support it."

The party would, however, support the leasing of the forests on the
basis of substantial monetary gains as it recognises that there is a
problem of climate change and that standing forests are required to
deal with the problem of greenhouse gas emissions.

Murray noted that while some of Guyana's forests are under conservation
leases there were still large tracts of forests that are still intact
which could be traded for carbon credits and which he feels was what
the President was speaking about.

Only speculating on what might have been behind the President's
thinking since the terms and conditions of the offer are not known,
Murray said that in the international arena developers pay large sums
in carbon credits for standing forests and reforestation. The sums, he
said, far exceed what is earned from logging and other forest
resources.

He noted, too, that a lobby was on to compensate developing countries
to keep standing forests since this was not catered for under the Kyoto
Protocol.

"I could understand that offer to be a business arrangement. I happen
to know that it could be a huge, lucrative business," he said while
speaking of knowing two investors who would measure the quantum of
emissions and pay even more than the sum of the forest extraction for
keeping the forests intact. "They are willing to pay developing
countries to keep their forests intact under commercial arrangements to
meet their emission targets under the Kyoto Protocol," he said.

Pulled out of a hat

Franklin of GAP-ROAR told Stabroek News that he was "not aware of that
magnanimous offer," exactly when it was made, what forum it was made
at, what the offer entails and what are the benefits.

Like AFC Leader Trotman, Franklin said that he was surprised at the
announcement of the offer made since last year and wondered whether
even Cabinet knew of it since he had not heard any announcement coming
from the Cabinet Secretary. "It appeared as though it was pulled out of
a hat," he said.

GAP-ROAR, he added, was not against Guyana making available rainforests
in the fight against climate change but "the President can't take it
upon himself to commit Guyana's forests as though they were his
personal property."

Stressing the need for consultation and public awareness, he said that
people, especially the Amerindians, who live in the hinterland and
forested areas and more particularly communally-granted land titles
need to know how this move would impact on their livelihood.

Having never heard about the offer at the parliamentary level or among
parliamentary leaders, Trotman said that "It brings to bear this issue
of consultation on national issues."

Stating that he was taken by surprise by the disclosure of the offer,
Trotman said that there is now need for the President to provide more
information to the public on it. "We need to know what Prime Minister
Blair's reaction and response were to the offer," he said.

"If we do not get a response from the Office of the President," he said
that maybe that information should be sought from the United Kingdom
where there was more freedom of expression.

The AFC he said was not against seeking solutions to climate change but
on this issue he said that the AFC could not express support or lack of
it because it does not have sufficient information.

Ramotar did not see any problem with the offer being made without
consultation since he felt there was consensus among the political
parties on the issue of addressing climate change.

He said that addressing climate change in using forests as a mitigating
factor was not a recent decision within the party. He said that the
government increased acreage to conservation efforts in Guyana even
after former President Desmond Hoyte donated one million acres to the
international community for conservation in the Iwokrama project.

Jagdeo, he said, has put the ball in the court of the developed
countries which have benefited from destroying the environment and are
now talking so much about trying to restore and preserve what is there.
"It makes a lot of sense to benefit from it rather than exploiting it
and destroying it at the same time," he said.

In 1989, then President Hoyte's offer to the Commonwealth Heads of
Government Meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia had also taken the country
by surprise as there had not been any national discussion of it.

Noting that the offer outlined to Blair still stands Jagdeo told the
Common-wealth Finance Ministers Meeting that the government was ready
to work with any bilateral or commercial partner "who shares our vision
of sustainable development where our long-established and world-leading
commitment to sustaining our forest can be matched by economic reward
which supports our national development efforts to create a socially
just and prosperous country."

He added that the awareness of climate change around the world is
steadily increasing. The Kyoto Protocol represented a valuable start in
combating climate change and the emergence of a $30 billion carbon
market is but one indication that the problem is now being addressed
with some level of seriousness.

While it was notable that the developed world was beginning to take
action, he said that this must not lead to a focus that benefits only
the developed world.

He noted the excessive focus on aviation in climate change which is
already causing economic damage to the tourism and agriculture
industries throughout the developing world including the Caribbean.

The Caribbean tourism industry has started to suffer from the developed
world government policies which involve the imposition of punitive
climate change taxes on aviation to discourage flying. "This is a cruel
irony when for years the same governments encouraged Caribbean
governments to urgently diversify into tourism to maximise the value
from one of the region's most competitive advantages", he said.

Similarly, he added that scientifically invalid data on the impact of
allegedly less carbon-friendly foods coming from places such as Africa
and South America needs to be addressed as they are not well served by
these reactions.