Forest offer

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56532094

Forest offer
Stabroek News, Monday, October 29th 2007

Earlier this month at the formal opening of the Commonwealth Finance
Ministers Meeting at the National Cultural Centre, President Jagdeo
must have seriously surprised some of those in his audience as he
wrapped up his presentation.

Coming to the final few paragraphs of what had been a straightforward
address, the President disclosed that Guyana's offer of almost its
entire rainforest in the fight against climate change was still on the
table. He disclosed that in a meeting last year with former British
Prime Minister Tony Blair he "outlined our offer to deploy almost our
entire rainforest - which is the size of England - in the long term
service of the world's battle against climate change. That offer
remains".

It is unclear which Guyanese stakeholders knew of President Jagdeo's
proposal beforehand and the process through which it was hammered out.
Suffice to say, none of the political parties represented in Parliament
was aware of it and no other stakeholder has since come forward to
claim ownership of the idea.

In the context of the clear and perceptible threat that climate change
poses to humanity, an offer such as President Jagdeo's may appear
attractive and broadly acceptable to all once it is fleshed out. It
does not however excuse the fact that it is unacceptable for President
Jagdeo to have completely surprised the nation with this munificent
offer - so far his own - to the world.

The announcement in itself relegated Parliament and all other
stakeholders in the discussion about the future of Guyana's forested
area and the best means of making it work for the country and its
people. The proposal also completely ignores the involved and widely
applauded bi-partisan work contained within the National Development
Strategy.

At the very least one would have thought that the President would have
presented his thoughts and views to the Economic Services Committee and
the Natural Resources Committee of Parliament. These were among the
several standing committees that the reformed constitution had
envisaged playing a muscular role in overseeing government's activities
and public business. The pledge of almost the entire rainforest in the
climate fight should definitely have been on their agenda.

Similar criticisms had arisen when the late President Desmond Hoyte had
made an unheralded offer at another Commonwealth forum - the Heads of
Government Meeting in 1989 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. That proposal
gave birth to the Iwokrama International Rainforest Centre which has
struggled to find viability in an international framework which placed
little value on standing forests.

This framework is now set for a serious shake-up at the upcoming Bali
climate meeting and whereas the Kyoto Protocol on reduction of
greenhouse gas emissions didn't assign real worth to standing forests
like Guyana's that perversity is about to change. This sea-change has
also begun to course through the main multilateral financial
institutions such as the World Bank which recently announced a Forest
Carbon Partnership Facility to pay for the protection of standing
forests including those in countries like Guyana.

It may be these fundamental changes which have encouraged President
Jagdeo to fast-track this offer which caught Georgetown unawares.
Because the offer was so bare there is time for the President to
retrieve the situation before the proposal is formally placed before
the upcoming meeting of the Common-wealth Heads of Government.
President Jagdeo needs to detail exactly what his ideas are for the
rainforest which is to be deployed (there are several new emerging
possibilities which would be far better than trading credits in the now
rapacious carbon market), the exact areas it would encompass, the
impact on the forestry, mining and indigenous communities and how the
country and its people are expected to benefit. Such a proposal should
be tabled in the National Assembly for consideration by the relevant
standing committees and full debate in the House.

It is gravely discordant that the government is given to routine and
sprawling consultations on issues such as an interim management
committee for the city but that there would be not a word of public
debate before this grand forest offer was unveiled by the President.

The President's proposal has taken on added significance and potency in
the light of the recent demarche on Barama Company Limited which is the
largest forest concession holder in the country - just over four
million acres in the northwest. The company has been slapped with $96M
in fines and its relationship with the government seems to have entered
a new phase. The fines were completely unexpected considering the lax
regulatory environment that had prevailed for many years and the
seemingly blind eye that was turned to several heavily criticized
practices which the company has now been fined for. President Jagdeo
himself made the point on Friday that if companies like Barama did not
follow the rules they would have to leave. Coming in tandem with the
fines this signals a seismic shift in the approach to the country's
forests. It, however, needs to be explained to the public and discussed
with all stakeholders.