Sustainability!

Today we stumbled upon an amazing movement occurring here in Guyana. Guyana’s Minister of Health and several other key government officials were in Aishalton to present President Bharrat Jagdeo’s “Low Carbon Development Plan.” It is the first plan of its kind put forth by a developing country to the developed countries to promote sustainable development by protecting untouched rainforests. Almost 80% of Guyana is unspoiled rainforest, and unlike many of its South American neighbors, it has not practiced mass deforestation to generate much-needed income. Rather, Guyana is choosing a different route.

The LCDP is offering developed countries the opportunity to ‘purchase’ carbon credits for Guyana to keep its rainforests intact and NOT develop them. Developed countries are seeing the benefit of forested lands in the absorption of greenhouse gases which are contributing to global climate change. Because the developed countries have emitted so much carbon into the air, carbon credits allow them to encourage other countries to keep their forests, ‘inhaling’ all the carbon the developed countries are ‘exhaling’. Guyana is one of only 6 countries in the world which still has vast intact rainforests. In exchange for keeping its forests, Guyana will receive money which it will use to invest in renewable and sustainable development for its country. Guyana has vast resources it can tap, including solar, hydro, and wind, to create clean and renewable energy for its people, instead of continuing to import very costly fossil fuels. This plan will allow Guyana the unique opportunity to attain the means to develop sustainably instead of falling into the same track the rest of the world has – developing using large amounts of fossil fuels for energy.

While the prospect of this plan makes me very excited for Guyana and hopefully other countries to follow, I am personally a little leery of ‘carbon credits’, while this system will sustain Guyana’s forests, what will the developed countries be doing to curb their own emissions? Will the carbon credits be a cop-out for the country to keep burning fuels and slashing their own forests? Often carbon credits are purchased to ‘neutralize’ a country/company/person’s own carbon out-put, permitting them to continue to burn fuels.

Similar to the US, Amerindians in Guyana own their land, separate from the government, so they have the option to opt-in or opt-out of this proposal. If they opt-in, will their ways of living be at risk: hunting, farming, and fishing? Currently, the plan is set to permit subsistence level activities for all indigenous peoples, but the Amerindians are still leery.

I hope that as the world looks at solutions to climate change such as carbon credits, we do not overlook our own personal responsibility in changing the way we live, as it is our energy and land usage at the root of the problem. I will close with a remark made by a young Amerindian leader during the meeting, one that made a strong impact on me,

“I am very interested in conserving our lands and forests, but not at the expense of changing how our people have lived for centuries – keeping our land, air, and water pristine, while persons in the developed countries can continue to live their overly consumptive lives, destroying our land, air, and water.”

(For more info: http://www.guyanaclimatechange.gov.gy)