Stabroek News
 | Swedish Tycoon Johan Eliasch insists that the purpose of his trip to Guyana the week before last in the company of His Royal Highness Prince Andrew was to learn more about Guyana's forestry sector, including eco-tourism. But criticism from some quarters suggests that the visit had on the agenda the brokering of a forestry deal to trade in carbon credits for a company Eliasch controls. Eliasch and the Prince had arrived in Guyana on Wednesday April 4 for a two-day visit. Speaking to Stabroek News via email on Thursday, Eliasch said that the discussions held in Guyana with the private and public sectors had been on a purely exploratory basis. He insisted that his interest was in the conservation of the rainforest. He said that he had discussions about carbon credits in the context of the difference it would make for Guyana financially, were the standing rainforests included under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol. "Unless the economic paradigm is changed for the rainforest - such that it is more valuable standing (through carbon credits) than logged - economic pressures will make rainforest conservation impossible," Eliasch said. He said that the Government of Guyana had an innovative and forward-thinking view of the capital values of its rainforests, "which I personally endorse and wish the government success with…it could make a very important, much needed contribution to the climate change agenda." Businessman Hamley Case, a friend of Eliasch explained last week that both Prince Andrew and Eliasch share a passion for the environment. In 2006 Eliasch purchased 400,000 acres in the heart of the Amazon Rainforest from a logging company in Brazil. The plot is located just north of the Madeira River and 1,600 miles (2600 km) northwest of Rio de Janeiro. Eliasch was quoted in news reports as citing environmental reasons as his motivation saying, "The Amazon is the lung of the world" and has invited scientists to explore the land in search of undiscovered species. The plot is estimated to have cost £8M. Eliasch, who is based in London, is also a banker and film producer, as well as deputy treasurer of the Conservative Party. He also serves as advisor to William Hague, the current Shadow Foreign Secretary and on the advisory board of the Centre for Social Justice, a conservative think-tank set up by former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith. |
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