– Over $14B in carbon credits disbursed in 3 years
As Amerindian leaders continue to engage the state on various pressing issues, the Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo announced that each village will receive financial resources to assist with housing upgrades.
He made the disclosure during his presentation on day two of the ongoing National Toshaos Council Conference (NTCC) at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) in Georgetown on Tuesday.
According to him, this will complement the additional $1 million in funding that will be granted to villages to offset upgrades to their sport grounds/centres.
Expounding on the housing initiative further, he stated that, “they would be managed by the village councils. So [if] people need help – they will get the help.”
This is in addition to monies being disbursed through the Carbon Credit initiative, that will see more than $14 billion being disbursed to communities in the last three years, including in the year 2025.
Guyana has signed an agreement with Hess Corporation, purchasing 30 per cent of the country’s forest carbon over ten years. Amerindian villages have since been benefitting significantly under the government-crafted Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) 2030, which has dedicated 15 per cent of total revenues earned under this mechanism, towards enhancing Amerindian livelihoods.
This was made possible through the upgraded Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) 2030 that dedicated 15 per cent of all revenues earned to the Amerindian development specifically.
In fact, according to the vice president, some 3,000 projects are being implemented simultaneously in more than 200 villages nationwide.
Dr Jagdeo also provided figures to demonstrate the LCDS’s direct benefits including US$22.7 million in the first year (2023), US$23.27 million in the second year (2024) and a maintained US$23.27 million allocation in the current year despite receiving less revenues from Hess Corporation overall.
“This year it is … nearly 22 percent of the resources that you are getting because we did not want, because of lower receipts this year, to change the allocation to the villages,” he explained.
Dr Jagdeo also noted the misleading rhetoric from critics who claim the government is flush with oil money, clarifying that although Guyana receives income from its oil and gas industry, that revenue accounts for only 37 per cent of the national budget. The rest of the budget is primarily allocated to critical sectors such as education, health, roads, and bridges, which together, receive more funding than the total oil revenue
Amerindian leaders were also informed that the PPP/C Administration has fulfilled all of its commitments made to the First People in its 2015-2020 manifesto, with Dr Jagdeo emphasising the importance of examining the legacies of the various political parties.
He informed leaders that the government may consider establishing its own airline through the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) in an effort to address the exploitative freight costs in interior regions.
This may include, according to him, purchasing an additional aircraft for the GDF to use as a commercial carrier to reduce costs. He also suggested community-level solutions like village councils chartering planes instead of private middlemen.
He noted that while on the coast, cost-of-living issues have been tackled through subsidies on fuel, electricity, and water, the interior’s challenges are more complex due to terrain and reliance on air freight.
He went on to add, “we plan to also upgrade and expand a lot of these airstrips so that bigger aircrafts can go especially in areas they [normally] can’t go.”
Over the next three days, the more than 200 leaders will continue to engage the president and his cabinet members on issues affecting their residents, aiming to address these to uplift the livelihoods of all Amerindians. (Department of Public Information)
