Under the recently signed agreement with Hess Corporation for the selling of the country’s carbon credits, Amerindian communities around Guyana will receive about US$112 million.
The revelation was made by Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo during the historic signing ceremony on Friday at the Baridi Benab State House.
He said that this is consistent with a pledge that Amerindian communities, both in forested and non-forested areas, will receive 15% of the proceeds from any sale of forest carbon.
According to the VP, Guyana would receive $187 million as compensation for the so-called “legacy era” (2016-2020). According to the agreement, payments of $250 million for the years 2021 to 2025 and $350 million for the years 2025 to 2030 are anticipated.
The distribution and use of these money will be decided by the communities.
Even now, with this major deal, we hope that the voluntary market, the prices would go up in the voluntary market were hovering at some abysmally low levels and this one major deal will have global resonance and make a major change, said Dr. Jagdeo. “It is truly transformative and it moves us closer to two objectives that we were working on for 15 years, where the world will value more forest carbon and we’ll move closer to a compliance market,” he said.
The Amerindians will directly benefit from all components of the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) 2030 in addition to the 15%, particularly from projects including renewable energy and climate adaptation and mitigation.
Following conversations with the community, the government will provide assistance through a new phase of the Amerindian Development Fund (ADF), support for participation in REDD+ and ART-TREES, and the completion of the land titling programme.
A framework known as REDD+ was established by the Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to direct activities in the forest sector that reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, as well as the sustainable management of forests, and the conservation and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries.
On Thursday, Guyana received the first TREES credits ever awarded by the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART).
As the first nation to receive carbon credits created particularly for the voluntary and compliant carbon markets for successfully halting forest loss and degradation (a procedure known as jurisdictional REDD+), this also represents a significant achievement.
Guyana has received 33.47 million TREES credits from ART for the five-year period between 2016 and 2020 after receiving permission from the ART Board of Directors and the conclusion of an independent validation and verification process. On the international carbon market, purchasers can purchase these serialised credits, which are recorded on ART’s public registry.
Derrick John, the chairman of the National Toshaos’ Council (NTC) and member of Guyana’s delegation to the just finished COP27, has hailed this historic accomplishment.
Following ART’s statement, the NTC stated in a press release that the achievement will further promote the creation of sustainable livelihoods and the preservation of forests within Amerindian communities.
The NTC said it is pleased that Guyana is leading efforts on climate finance that will directly benefit Indigenous peoples in advancing climate resilience and sustainable livelihood opportunities. The NTC is the national body that represents all elected Indigenous village leaders in Guyana.
Guyana’s successful completion of the ART procedure opens the door for other governments seeking to benefit from carbon market financing for their efforts to successfully protect and restore forests.
