Nationwide acceptance of LCDS impresses forest evaluation experts

A delegation sent to conduct a real time evaluation of the Norwegian Global Initiative on Climate Change and Forestry in Guyana is impressed with the mass acceptance of Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS). The team, led by Pete Hardcastel, a forester and consultant, met President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday at the Guyana International Conference Centre (GICC) after concluding a baseline assessment of their four-year assignment.
“One of the things that we found is that everybody that we have met, without exception, has been supportive of the Low Carbon Development Strategy,” Dr Hardcastel said.

Its wide-based concept, Dr Hardcastel, said is enough conviction for the strategy to be genuinely and universally accepted as an initiative good for Guyana.
“We feel that’s a good starting point and its implementation is something that we should all need to learn about as things start moving forward,” Dr. Hardcastel.
He was accompanied in his visit to the President by Political Scientist, Dr. Deborah Davenport, and Forest Ecology Specialist, Dr. Phillipa Lincoln.

The visit to Guyana is one of a series of five national level assessments to determine Norway’s impact on climate change and forestry at the sub-national, national and global levels. The other countries include Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Indonesia.
Norway has partnered with Guyana to achieve one of the first attempts between a developed and a developing country to work together to implement a national scale model on how forests can be deployed to address climate change without compromising sovereignty or national development priorities.
Norway has promised up to US$30M this year, and within a matter of months the money will be coming to Guyana.
Mr. Hardcastel told the Government Information Agency (GINA) that the team hopes to return at least three times during the course of the four-year assignment.
Guyana’s LCDS, the brainchild of President Jagdeo, is part of the country’s contribution to combating climate change through effective management and sustainability.
In return for its maintenance and service to the environment, the strategy calls for a compensatory mechanism which can also augment efforts by the Guyana Government to promote climate change adaptation and mitigation, such as strengthening sea defences.
Since its June 2009 launch, the strategy attracted participation through consultation from over 3,000 people from 222 communities and has gained widespread international attention.(GINA)