Guyana Asks British Gov't to Manage Its Vast Rainforests
by David Sassoon - Nov 25th, 2007
in
The Independent's (UK) just published an extraordinary story written by a correspondent in Georgetown, Guyana:
The former British colony, sandwiched between Venezuela and Brazil, is home to fewer than a million people but it is also home to an intact rainforest larger than England. In a dramatic offer, the government of Guyana has said it is willing to place its entire standing forest under the control of a British-led, international body in return for a bilateral deal with the UK that would secure development aid and the technical assistance needed to make the change to a green economy.
The offer was made by Guyana's President, Bharrat Jagdeo, an economist by training. Guyana is the poorest nation in South America, and pressure is building to exploit the timber and mine the gold found in its forests. Jagdeo believes there's another path to progress besides destructive exploitation.
One fifth of global warming pollution is the result of ongoing deforestation of the world's equatorial rainforests. Jagdeo wants to put Guyana's enormous tracts of virgin forests in the service of the battle against global warming, but needs international assistance to succeed.
Stay tuned. Let's see what happens when governments meet in Bali next month at the next annual global climate meeting. The developing nations where most of these forests stand face economic losses if they reduce cutting, and so want to develop mechanisms that would compensate them with carbon credits tradeable internationally.
Bookmark/Search this post with:
Post new comment