Guyana to Host Biodiversity Summit Later This Month
GEORGETOWN, Guyana – Guyana says it will use the upcoming Global Biodiversity Alliance Summit here later this month to enter into a new phase of its green leadership and ensuring the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) 2030 meets its goals.
Kevin HoganAdvisor to the Office of the President, Kevin Hogan, said the July 23-25 summit will also provide Guyana will an opportunity to propose the establishment of a financing structure which incentivizes countries to protect their biodiversity.
He said that while the LDCS initially gained momentum for its climate-focused approach, biodiversity has always been integral to its vision.
“The LCDS started with the climate aspects of the forest. However, the biodiversity aspect was always known about, and it was always hoped that the time would be right to expand the LCDS…
“I believe we’ve got to this day,(it is) the next evolution and it will be Guyana-led, as it always has with Guyana at the fore, but with some fantastic international partners without whom it wouldn’t be possible,” said Hogan.
The LCDS started in the mid-2000s, when Guyana emerged from decades of economic stagnation. The country faced limited options, burdened by debt and a struggling economy.
The government became aware that many countries around the world were using their resources unsustainably, destroying their forests and attempting to rebuild them years later and Hogan said this raised the question of whether Guyana could avoid unsustainable development.
The answer emerged in 2009 with the launch of the first LCDS, making Guyana the first developing country to propose such a comprehensive low-carbon framework. At the core of this strategy was a radical idea: getting paid to keep trees standing.
That idea became reality through an agreement with the government of Norway through which Guyana received US$227 million in performance-based payments from 2009 to 2015 for maintaining low deforestation rates.
Between 2016 and 2020, no payments were made for forest climate services and Hogan said “it was a bit of a tragedy in that the forest climate services hadn’t been remunerated despite all the hard work of the people”.
But the government has since received compensation for its forest climate services spanning 2009 to 2022 and Hogan notes that today, LCDS 2030 builds on that foundation, introducing new focus areas such as biodiversity protection, water management, and urban sustainability.
“Guyana continues to punch above its weight on the international stage. That’s because this has always been a Guyana-led vision, from the presidency to the grassroots,” he added.
