Deploying forest doesn't mean ownership transfer -President clarifies

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56531141

Deploying forest doesn't mean ownership transfer -President clarifies
Stabroek News, Wednesday, October 17th 2007

President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday clarified his statement made at the
opening of the Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meeting on Monday when he
spoke about deploying the country's forest in the fight against climate
change, noting that he didn't mean that ownership of the forest would
have been transferred.

"What we're saying is that we would in Guyana ensure guaranteed
sustainable forest practices as well as focus heavily on conservation
if there is economic reward for that and that we're prepared to work
with bilateral donors, as well as commercial entities to put this to
the market or to guarantee a financial flow to the country," the
Government Information Agency quoted the president as saying to media
personnel.

He said that this needs to be done ahead of 2012 since currently, there
is no provision for standing rainforests in the Kyoto Protocol and "we
don't want to be left out of any financial flows from which our country
could possibly benefit."

The President said that the Government is hoping that in the post-Kyoto
Protocol there would be a framework for standing forests and a
mechanism for rewarding countries for conserving their rainforests.

He said that in the interim work needs to be done with bilateral donors
so they could guarantee a particular financial flow to the country and
then possibly use carbon credits that could be derived from standing
rainforests if they are assessed to offset carbon emissions.

He said that preserving the forests not only combats the effects of
climate change, but also preserves biodiversity.

Asked about Guyana's logging practices, the President said that Guyana
has highly sustainable harvesting practices.

He said that a flyover of felled areas of Guyana's forest shows no loss
of the canopy. (See other story on page 10)