Vice President’s office defends carbon credits process, says APA had adequate opportunity to consult

The Office of Vice President (VP) Bharrat Jagdeo has defended the process for the awarding of Guyana’s carbon credits and questioned the motives of the Amerindian Peoples Association (APA) in lodging a complaint that could lead to a delay in disbursements.

The APA has complained to the Winrock Architecture for REDD+ Transaction Secretariat (ART), the certifying body for Guyana’s carbon credits programme, alleging the lack of adequate consultations among other defects.

A lengthy rebuttal issued on Saturday by Jagdeo’s office may reflect anxiety that the APA complaint could interrupt what had been hailed as a historic US$750m deal between Guyana and the American oil company, Hess, one of the partners of Exxon in the lucrative offshore Stabroek Block.

The statement by the VP’s office sought to reject some of the APA’s allegations by accusing it of the same things.

It charged the APA with not adhering to the free, prior, and informed consent [FPIC] principle, an accusation noted by the APA in its complaint to ART. The VP’s office statement also questioned the APA’s political neutrality when it referred to its Executive Director, Jean La Rose’s candidacy as Deputy Representative in the APNU + AFC Coalition List and her subsequent appointment to a senior Board position by then President David Granger.

The VP’s office referred to a letter from Toshao Derrick John, Chairman of the National Toshaos’ Council, and published in Saturday’s edition of Stabroek News in which he [John] accused the APA of not informing or consulting with indigenous villages, the National Toshaos Council, or any representative group of the Indigenous Peoples of Guyana in relation to the complaint to the ART Secretariat. According to statement from Jagdeo’s office, it is the APA which violated the FPIC principle.

In outlining the process undertaken in Guyana’s application under ART and the APA’s selective participation, the statement said that as part of the audit of Guyana’s application for 2016-2020, an independent verifier conducted an assessment mission to several Indigenous villages to inform their findings. Further, the verifier engaged with multiple stakeholders in more than 20 sessions. The statement noted that the APA was invited and participated in the independent verifier’s session. Additionally, the APA was also invited at the end of this stakeholder meeting, to follow up with the auditor should this be needed. The APA, according to Jagdeo’s office, made no such request and expressed no request for follow-up or concern to the Auditors in the Audit Process. In fact, for over two years, the VP’s statement says, the APA was invited by the Office of the President to participate in, and to help lead, consultations across Guyana concerning the LCDS 2030 and ART.

The VP’s statement said that the APA was very selective in its engagement in the consultation that it now raises grievances about. The statement cited as an example