Guyana: Indigenous leaders call for national climate change plans to respect rights
RF-US partner the Amerindian Peoples Association (APA) has joined with other indigenous leaders to call on the government of Guyana to respect indigenous rights in the development and implementation of national climate change strategies.
Guyana is a small South American country along the Atlantic Ocean and nearly 80 percent of its land is covered by intact rainforest, much of which is the traditional land of Guyana’s indigenous peoples. The government of Guyana has become a strong advocate for the country’s participation in proposed avoided deforestation programs – such as UN-REDD and the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) – that aim to provide economic rewards to developing countries to keep their forests intact. Guyana is an FCPF pilot country, and the World Bank recently approved the country’s readiness plan on its proposed avoided deforestation program. In June, the president of Guyana also launched a national Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) that seeks to raise international funds to reward Guyana for the “carbon services” provided by its intact rainforests.
