Forbes Magazine lauds Jagdeo for LCDS initiative

Former President Bharrat Jagdeo was lauded by the Forbes Magazine for embarking on Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), and commended for the manner in which he was able to secure funding from the Norwegian government for the protection of rainforests in Guyana.
In  “Standing up: Guyana and Norway partner to keep trees standing”, written by contributor Mindy Lubber and published online at www.forbes.com on April 26, the vastly different two countries’  partnership  on a project that will benefit thousands of Guyanese by providing them with cheaper, cleaner energy, was highlighted.
Below is the full text.

Sustainability is all the rage these days. The phrase “sustainable development” can be heard with equal frequency in both boardrooms and dorm rooms. That’s because it’s a phrase implying you can have your cake and eat it too.
The only problem is, sometimes the “sustainable” part of the equation gets lost along the way.
But one initiative involving two very different bedfellows is worth noting, precisely because it hasn’t lost sight of the forest for the trees when it comes to balancing sustainability with development. The two bedfellows in this case are the governments of Guyana and Norway.
On first glance, these two nations couldn’t be more different. One is a developed northern European nation of 4.7 million people, with a GDP of US$265 billion and a geography with far more fiords than forests. The other is a developing nation whose population is only slightly larger than North Dakota’s, has a GDP of about US$5 billion and is home to one of the largest and most important tropical forests in the world.
Where this starts to get interesting is that Guyana has embarked on a long-term commitment to a “Low Carbon Development Strategy” (LCDS) whereby it will avoid tropical deforestation and degradation, create low-carbon infrastructure such as hydro-electric power plants, and provide its people with the tools they need to succeed without plundering the nation’s vast ecological and natural resources.
This type of activity has a name in those circles that wake up to a cup of fair-trade coffee every morning. It’s called REDD, which stands for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation. And it’s got some serious science behind it.  Every grade school student knows that trees take in carbon dioxide and produce oxygen.
But what they may not know is that deforestation accounts for about 20 per cent of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and that keeping trees vertical and forests healthy is one of the simplest things we can do to address global climate change.
But with all the economic pressures to develop these natural resources, what’s a developing country with huge tracts of forested land to do? Many choose to harvest these resources; a few even try to use them to bring their people out of poverty and into a higher standard of living. That’s development. But there’s nothing sustainable about it.
A better way
Which is why Guyana’s story is so unusual and so compelling. Guyana, led by then President Bharrat Jagdeo, had the audacity in 2008 to ask a deceptively simple question: Isn’t there a better way?
Isn’t there a better way to provide the people of Guyana with the development they crave? Can there be another way to grow the economy without cutting down old growth forests, degrading the pristine ecosystems that are home to thousands of species of plants and animals (some that live nowhere else on earth) and following the old model of cut first, ask questions later?
The answer turns out to be yes, but with a big caveat. Guyana has been able to do what few developing forested countries have done – resist the economic forces to cut their natural resources for cash (something that would provide development, but would be a sustainability disaster for both their land and our climate). They’ve kept more than 99.5 per cent of their trees vertical and their forests healthy.
But here’s the caveat: They’ve been able to do this with the direct investment of countries like Norway, which has pledged some US$250 million in payments to Guyana for avoiding deforestation and degradation. Norway is paying for measured results by Guyana in delivering services that cool the planet’s climate by avoiding the destruction of trees.
It’s a win-win.  The world gets closer to stopping runaway climate change while countries like Guyana can develop what President Jagdeo calls “new economies” – built on inclusive green growth. Guyana has leveraged funds to deploy foreign investment for clean energy and social good, bringing foreign investment into the country for a first-of-its kind hydro-electric project, solar panels in villages and computers to families without the means to acquire them otherwise.
One of the keys to the Norway agreement is that the activities of Guyana are verified by outside third parties who examine both actual forest loss through scientific sensing equipment as well as social impacts. These verification systems are critically important to assure everyone involved that progress is truly being made.
Of course, this kind of work doesn’t come without problems. Guyana still faces criticism on indigenous rights issues, land tenure issues, and whether or not the payments from Norway will end up as just another form of traditional development aid. These critics should be heard. But no one said that changing the world was going to be easy.
And the fact is, the lessons learned from the problems in Guyana will serve as a roadmap for other forested countries that follow in their footsteps.
The money paid by Norway to Guyana is something of an analogy for what could happen if there were a global trading programme for REDD.  Such a programme makes sense on a number of levels, but first and foremost, it’s the single easiest and cheapest way to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.  The hope, of course, is that the Guyana model can be applied to any number of developing countries with forests that need to be protected and people who want some of the benefits that we enjoy in the developed world. So if our development is to be sustainable, we might well want to answer President Jagdeo’s audacious and simple question. (Excerpted from Forbes Magazine)