Comments on: President Jagdeo avoids answering the BBC’s questions about corruption http://www.redd-monitor.org/2010/02/05/president-jagdeo-avoids-answering-the-bbcs-questions-about-corruption/ news, views and analysis about reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:47:34 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Moses Swami http://www.redd-monitor.org/2010/02/05/president-jagdeo-avoids-answering-the-bbcs-questions-about-corruption/#comment-13410 Moses Swami Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:21:05 +0000 http://www.redd-monitor.org/?p=4075#comment-13410 Transparency International's rating is not the only yardstick for measuring transparency and Guyana has complained before about the flawed process TI uses to issue skewed assessments. Was the Copenhagen summit transparent? It was supposed to have been a UN summit but in the end it was hijacked by a few countries with their own agendas. Guyana has committed to ensuring international standards are implemented for the funding mechanism for the agreement with Norway and its track record with using funds from the World Bank and other international funding and lending agencies is unblemished. Transparency International’s rating is not the only yardstick for measuring transparency and Guyana has complained before about the flawed process TI uses to issue skewed assessments. Was the Copenhagen summit transparent? It was supposed to have been a UN summit but in the end it was hijacked by a few countries with their own agendas.
Guyana has committed to ensuring international standards are implemented for the funding mechanism for the agreement with Norway and its track record with using funds from the World Bank and other international funding and lending agencies is unblemished.

]]> By: Michael Brown http://www.redd-monitor.org/2010/02/05/president-jagdeo-avoids-answering-the-bbcs-questions-about-corruption/#comment-13205 Michael Brown Fri, 05 Feb 2010 19:07:15 +0000 http://www.redd-monitor.org/?p=4075#comment-13205 Unless local Guyanese have the capacity to (a) negotiate acceptable REDD agreements (b) monitor activities regarding any future REDD project design and implementation leading to agreements to assure that whatever revenue sharing mechanisms for REDD credits reach local levels in a timely fashion, and are not diverted, the REDD marketplace in Guyana will not function. Early donor subsidy programs have to prepare local stakeholders to effectively monitor and demand that adaptive management occurs as needed - both locally in terms of resource user behaviors, and among partners who commit to resource governance arrangements that involve local to-be beneficiaries. At some points the subsideis will disappear. If communityb level stakeholders are no better prepared than now, it is inevitiable that impermanence of forest resources will result, with degradation coming from any number of potential sources. Is this, or will this be happening in Guyana? Or elsewhere? Unless local Guyanese have the capacity to (a) negotiate acceptable REDD agreements (b) monitor activities regarding any future REDD project design and implementation leading to agreements to assure that whatever revenue sharing mechanisms for REDD credits reach local levels in a timely fashion, and are not diverted, the REDD marketplace in Guyana will not function. Early donor subsidy programs have to prepare local stakeholders to effectively monitor and demand that adaptive management occurs as needed – both locally in terms of resource user behaviors, and among partners who commit to resource governance arrangements that involve local to-be beneficiaries. At some points the subsideis will disappear. If communityb level stakeholders are no better prepared than now, it is inevitiable that impermanence of forest resources will result, with degradation coming from any number of potential sources.

Is this, or will this be happening in Guyana? Or elsewhere?

]]> By: James http://www.redd-monitor.org/2010/02/05/president-jagdeo-avoids-answering-the-bbcs-questions-about-corruption/#comment-13192 James Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:22:45 +0000 http://www.redd-monitor.org/?p=4075#comment-13192 The President says "I should allow my people to cut down the trees" - but they already can. A primary reason why they don't is because the authorities prefer that certain types of foreign enterprise do so, typically in parts of the forest for which they do not have legal title. Those foreign groups generate little revenue for the Guyanese Treasury from their logging, timber processing and export business - and they import much of their workforce. Very few (probably three) such groups currently operate in Guyana - see http://www.globaltimber.org.uk/guyana.htm. The Norway-Guyana project (and REDD as a whole) will badly backfire unless its explicit priority is overcoming poor governance in the forest and mining sectors. If it focussed on those three groups' businesses, it would cost-effectively achieve a much needed domino effect worldwide. The President says “I should allow my people to cut down the trees” – but they already can.
A primary reason why they don’t is because the authorities prefer that certain types of foreign enterprise do so, typically in parts of the forest for which they do not have legal title.
Those foreign groups generate little revenue for the Guyanese Treasury from their logging, timber processing and export business – and they import much of their workforce.
Very few (probably three) such groups currently operate in Guyana – see http://www.globaltimber.org.uk/guyana.htm.
The Norway-Guyana project (and REDD as a whole) will badly backfire unless its explicit priority is overcoming poor governance in the forest and mining sectors. If it focussed on those three groups’ businesses, it would cost-effectively achieve a much needed domino effect worldwide.

]]>