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

that the APA was asked to join other stakeholders on the LCDS Communications Sub-Committee but did not attend or participate in any way. The APA neglected – even though they made an initial offer – to come up with suggestions on addressing some challenges during the national consultations process, such as identifying translators fluent in local languages. Yet, included in their complaint to the ART Secretariat, is a claim of lack of translation into the local indigenous languages.

The release said that unlike other members of the Steering Committee who led consultations, and gathered input and feedback, the APA never fulfilled their responsibility. The release posited that the draft 315 page LCDS 2030 report - https://lcds.gov.gy/summary-of-feedback/ contains records evidencing that extensive consultation were conducted on the LCDS 20230 inclusive of names of persons consulted, dates and minutes of discussions, including names of some of the persons now putting forward inaccurate information.

Benefits-sharing

Regarding the benefits-sharing mechanism, which was also cited in the APA’s Complaint, the VP’s statement noted that Guyana’s jurisdictional/national approach to ART TREES was consulted on and led to suggestions that are documented in the July 2022 version of the LCDS; this was reviewed by the National Toshaos’ Council and other key stakeholders. About the APA claims that remarks made in the consultations were not captured in the 315-page report, the release said that the APA – like all members of the Steering Committee – was asked to review the 315-page report before it was finalized and to raise any issues and recommend changes. According to the release, the APA opted to absent themselves from meetings which considered stakeholders’ feedback and that it [the APA] claimed they had the meeting dates confused.

The VP’s statement said that Guyana’s ART engagement was (i) consulted on at the National Toshaos’ Conference in July 2022 and a resolution passed supporting this engagement: (ii) approved by a MultiStakeholder Steering Committee overseeing the LCDS: and (iii) tabled and debated in the Parliament of Guyana with a resolution passed in August 2022. The Endorsement, Approval and Resolution each outline the focus of the LCDS 2030, Guyana’s Jurisdictional ART engagement, and the proposed benefits-sharing mechanism which were all part of this process of review and debate. Regarding this report, the statement cited other members of the Steering Committee claiming to have discovered hundreds of copies of the draft LCDS 2030, given to the APA to help with distribution and consultation, still sitting in the APA’s headquarters. The Office of the Vice President, the statement said, is aware that resources were provided to assist with the distribution of the draft LCDS to communities all across the country.

Stating that the Vice President was concerned and disheartened that thousands of citizens across hundreds of indigenous villages and local communities, are unaware that the APA had called for the suspension of the finances to fund the priorities they are formulating for their future, the statement asked of the APA to inform the public why the APA is seeking to prevent the process of village planning in each community? Why should this process to develop villages utilizing revenues from the carbon credits programme be frozen? And why would the APA, in good faith, prevent Indigenous villages and local communities from accessing carbon credits revenue from 2016 that are already in their bank accounts? The release seeks to elicit from the APA what option does it [the APA] offer the 242 villages and communities to meet their most pressing needs, and those they have developed for their own development?