For Mr. Jagdeo and the People’s Progressive Party, the sale of carbon credits is all about money. Money at their disposal to throw around in the grand voter procurement scheme and the accompanying propaganda blitz helps the PPP as it seeks to hoodwink citizens and the international onlookers, or so they believe.
For the large majority of Guyanese Indigenous Peoples, this issue of the sale of carbon credits exposes the government’s contempt for the indigenous population. For our people it is not about money. It is about our heritage, our culture, our works over the generations, our rights, our dignity and our pride as a people. Had it been about money, we, or those who preceded us, would have harvested our forests to the last stump. We would have invited, and where they came uninvited, we would have encouraged, miners to come into our lands to dig up the last grain of gold and pollute our waterways. We would have poisoned our streams, creeks, and rivers by taking and consuming the last fish. We would have killed and eaten our animals to the last suckling.
Instead, we preserved, carefully managed and monitored our natural resources so that now, Guyana can boast of an eighty percent (80%) forest canopy with a deforestation rate of 0.4% to 0.5%per annum. Now, we can boast as a country that we possess a large amount of the world’s remaining fresh water, being a part of the Amazon Region (Guiana Shield) which boasts of having 20% of the world’s remaining fresh water. We can boast of having an animal kingdom of giants: the harpy eagle, giant otter, giant anteater, Jaguar, the arapaima to name a few. We see our purpose here on Mother Earth as her protector. We can do no less for she provides for all of our needs.
This government has no respect for anything, which does not serve its narrow purpose of personal enrichment. It has no regard for anyone who it perceives as not supporting its separatist, political objectives. Our Indigenous peoples, in large majority, want our ancestral and contemporary works recognised and respected. We want our rights, not just on pieces of paper and conveniently talked about; we want our rights respected.
The Indigenous Peoples’ right to Self-determination and right to Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) are not merely aspirational. These rights are enforceable and ought to be enforced, and highly regarded by Guyana, a State Party to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). The PPP’s blatant disregard for these rights is, therefore, reprehensible, and we reject it in the strongest terms possible.
The State has overreached. The State has stretched its manipulative hand into private properties – titled lands – owned by Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous Peoples have inalienable ownership over some 18.5% of Guyana’s lands. The State negotiated the sale of carbon credits using (some) lands owned by these private citizens, without their consent. In fact, the PPP government, which controls the State machinery, failed, refused and/or neglected to consult with the legal owners of lands before engaging the potential purchaser. In my humble opinion, the government possesses no such power.
In so doing, the government trampled upon the rights of a large and growing section (13%) of our population without flinching. They stripped our people of their dignity. They disregarded the place of pride that we earned as a people. They believe that money will make us blind to the truth. This will never be.
Our people never agreed to the sale of carbon credits in the first place. How can the PPP now ask our people to agree to a miserly 15% share from the proceeds of our assets? What madness is this?
It is clear why the PPP continues to resist the call for amending the Amerindian Act. It is equally clear why the PPP is opposed to legally recognising Indigenous District Councils. A legally recognised District Council, such as the South Rupununi District Council, may have the power to negotiate and sell its own carbon credits, earning directly from its legally owned assets. Mr. Jagdeo and the PPP refuse to recognise the Moruca and Upper Mazaruni District Council and label the SRDC “politically affiliated” so that they can continue to manipulate and dominate the few handpicked members of the National Toshaos’ Council in advancing their partisan agenda.
Mr. Jagdeo and the PPP are violating basic provisions of the existing Amerindian Act. The Act provides that the Village General Meeting is the highest decision making forum in a Village. The Act empowers the Village Council to manage the assets (including land and money) on behalf of, and in the best interest of, the Village. The PPP has ignored these provisions of statutory law. As a prerequisite to receiving the money, Mr. Jagdeo has instructed that special bank accounts be set up and special finance committees established to manage this money. In so doing, he has usurped the functions of both the elected Village Council and the Village General Meeting. This borders on executive lawlessness and has all the trappings of a dictatorship.
No one is against money being earned and distributed to the citizenry. The real question is this: Is money of greater importance than citizens’ rights and the rule of law? That said the conversation about what percentage of the carbon credit revenues is enough for indigenous Guyanese is a decoy. The real conversation must start at the beginning. How did we get to this point? Who authorised the PPP regime to negotiate the sale? Who owns the forests, which were traded? Is it right to ignore the owners and sell their property then offer them a pittance? Settle those issues, then, let the conversation regarding what percentage is appropriate begin. For now, place a hold on the carnival of corruption.
