Jagdeo lobbies for standing forests

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56529695

Jagdeo lobbies for standing forests
Stabroek News, Thursday, September 27th 2007

President Bharrat Jagdeo on Monday identified the need for a global
agenda to recognize the contributions of standing forests towards
addressing climate change through avoided deforestation, carbon
sequestration and ecosystem services.

He made the pitch during his presentation on 'The Leadership Challenge
of Climate Change" at a high-level forum convened by United Nations
Secretary General Ban Ki moon in New York.

President Jagdeo in his statement, released yesterday by the Government
Information Agency, also called for an urgent change to what he
referred to as the "current perverse arrangement which provides a
disincentive for forest conservation and protection."

He contended too that opportunity costs should be taken into
consideration, and financial models developed to provide adequate
compensation and incentives for maintaining standing forests through
conservation and sustainable use.

The Guyana Head of State advocated the provision of increased and
easily accessible financial resources as well as capacity-building for
climate change mitigation by developing countries as the current
mechanisms, in particular the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development
Mechanism, have not proven to be effective so far.

Jagdeo said that the forum offered an opportunity "to put an end to the
culture of protracted negotiations and inactivity in relation to agreed
actions." He observed that the experiences in relation to the increase
in storms and extreme weather events were reminders that climate change
is a reality and the impact will be even greater if the rate of
greenhouse gas emissions is not addressed.

Making a negligible contribution to greenhouse gases but with 90% of
the population on the coastal belt one metre below sea level, the
President noted that Guyana was particularly vulnerable to climate
change.

"Guyana's vulnerability was vividly demonstrated by a massive flood in
2005 which was estimated to have led to losses equivalent to
approximately 60% of the country's GDP."

Meanwhile, the President pointed out that Guyana's vast, intact forest
resources represent a critical asset base for global climate change
mitigation. "With increasing pressure for commercial exploitation,
Guyana has decided to maintain extensive portions of our forests in
their pristine state, developing a forest management approach based on
conservation and sustainable harvesting and utilization," he told the
forum.

This, he said, has resulted in a number of flagship initiatives such as
the Iwokrama International Programme for Rainforest Conservation and a
conservation concession in collaboration with Conservation
International.

Regrettably, however, efforts to manage Guyana's forests in a
sustainable manner are not encouraged by the current framework for
climate change, Jagdeo said.

In particular the Kyoto Protocol and its Clean Development Mechanism
provide no recognition nor adequate compensation for the contributions
of standing forests towards climate change mitigation. In fact, he
continued, the current approaches penalize countries with low
deforestation rates through reduced value of carbon credits.

Jagdeo concluded that mitigation efforts would only improve if the
international community provides an encouraging framework for their
development.