Jagdeo talks up LCDS, REDD+ model at Jeju forum

Former President Bharrat Jagdeo told the IUCN World Congress in Jeju, South Korea that his brainchild project, the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) and the REDD+ model is one of the working examples to achieve conservation of nature and address global climate change while creating livelihood opportunities at the national and local levels.
Jagdeo was one of the feature speakers at the first in a series of World Leaders Dialogues at the congress and spoke on the topic “Nature + Climate: can nature save us?” The forum recognised that reducing greenhouse gas emissions is the only long-term answer to stabilising the global climate, but as a global climate agreement remains elusive, nature-based solutions such as REDD+ are increasingly being recognised as urgent priorities for affirmative climate action, the Office of Climate Change said in a statement.
In the discussions, Jagdeo recognised the important role the scientific community has played in bringing the issue of climate change to international attention and recognition, but emphasised the need to move now to address the issue and finding solutions, which require collective action by the public and private sectors, civil society, academia and the research community.
He emphasised the important role of protecting forests for its ecosystem services and biodiversity, noting that this represents the largest climate change action and an immediate low- cost abatement solution.
Jagdeo pointed out the need to scale-up pilot initiatives to national scale models, and cited the work of Guyana through its LCDS and REDD+ model with Norway as a working example of helping to address some of the issues surrounding making REDD+ work, and giving the assurances that are needed by both developed and developing countries in areas such as sovereignty over forests, financial accountability, social and environmental safeguards and measuring and addressing the drivers of deforestation.
The session was moderated by journalist and IUCN Patron Sally Ranney and among the panelists were Republic of Congo Sustainable Development, Forestry Economy and Environment Minister Henri Djombo; former Republic of Korea Environment Minister Dr Maan- ee Lee; HOLCIM Sustainable Development Director Ruksana Mirza and Shell Oil Company President Marvin Odum.
The IUCN World Conservation Congress is the world’s largest and most important conservation event held every four years. The 2012 congress brings together leaders from government, the public sector, non-governmental organisations, business, UN agencies and social organisations to discuss, debate and decide solutions for the world’s most pressing environment and development issues.
Jagdeo is attending in his dual role capacity as IUCN high level envoy for sustainable development in forest countries and IUCN Patron for Nature. Also attending is advisor to the president and head of the Office of Climate Change Shyam Nokta, who is also chair of the board of the Protected Areas Commission.
While at the conference, Jagdeo and Nokta also had meetings with the new Global Conservation Fund (GFC) Chief Executive Officer Naoko Ishii and Korean Environment Minister Yoo Young Soo. Korea is one of the global leaders on green economy and has taken the lead on establishing the Global Green Growth Institute to which Guyana is a participant member.
At the recently held Rio+ 20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development, Guyana joined 16 other industrialised, emerging economies and developing countries in signing the agreement on the establishment of the Global Green Growth Institute, which is dedicated to pioneering a new model of environmentally sustainable economic growth, known as “green growth”.
Jagdeo was also guest speaker at the Conservation International’s 10 year anniversary of the GCF. The GCF was the source of CI’s financial support for Guyana’s Conservation Trust Fund that was established with a contribution of U.S$ 3.5 million, and which will support Guyana’s efforts to establish and management its Protected Areas System. This endowment will be rolled into the statutory National Protected Areas Trust Fund under the Guyana’s Protected Areas Act. While at the congress, Jagdeo will participate in the meeting of the IUCN patrons that will review IUCN achievements to date and consider its new programme of activities for the next four years.