The Real Champion of the Earth: a True Story

Jagdeo steals Jagan’s Thunder 

Speeches dating back to 1992 right through to 1997 of the later President and Founding Father of the Nation, Dr. Cheddi Jagan can be found in a booklet put together by the PPP union GAWU.  

The Book which was launched earlier this month documents the late leader’s wealth of knowledge on the environment with projections on sustainable development.

It was noted by those who attended the formal launching of the book that it was under Dr. Jagan’s guidance that The Environmental Protection Agency was launched and the Environmental Protection Act was birthed.

According to a press report- ‘Opposer’ to Jagdeo, Jaganite Navin Chandarpal who edited the collection said that Jagan said things that other leaders dare not say! He also recalled that Jagan waged a campaign promoting the economic benefits of sustainable forests and ‘crusading’ for debt write-offs. 

The recent glory given to the self-proclaimed Champ (Chump?) of the Forest is nothing but a farce compared to Jagan who did not seek glory while transforming Guyana. 

Posters, massive welcome home ceremonies, messages across the media and the millions of dollars spent on campaigns to promote Kim Jagdeo Sung 1 promotes nothing but a man seeking fame and glory, almost Burnham like. 

And, almost like a mockery of the Founding Father of the Nation’s contribution, the Great Jagdeo refused to attention this special ceremony to promote Jagan’s speeches on the environment. 

Who is the real Champion? Jagdeo? You judge.

All hail the Mighty Oozeness

Once again we witness the ooze spewing out from the elected President of Guyana. It is our view that the President of Guyana has lied to the public more than any other president in the world at his time. Whether it has to do with duty-free vehicles, mining concessions, cabinet outreaches, ramjattan’s expulsion, janet jagan’s leadership, bobby ramroop’s gifts, Gerry gouveia’ gifts, the amalia falls hydrocele project or the government’s fiber optic cable.

Lies have formed a every increasing, every present flowing of fermented verbiage coming out of his excellency’s mouth.

How can the nation stand the level of deceit that is being foisted on them?

We will soon put together a chronology of Jagdeo’s lies one of these days as we attempt to document Guyana’s slide into a hopeless, hapless, crime-infused nation in which the friends of the president has risen to great wealth due to their association with the President.

Yet, this man, nay, this fading light of what was a human, looks the public in the eye and lies more and more – each and every time that he talks to them. They literally threw filth in Fredie’s face, but throw more nasty verbal filth to our intelligence every day!

Let’s look at the LCDS project. How many persons KNOW of the total amount spent by Jagdeo on the LCDS project so far. We see the “3rd edition” (ref 3rd term) of his strategy document on LCDS. Who paid for that and who/what body approved those expenditures? We see Amerindians feted and partied and airplaned to places to give a show of support for the LCDS, at whose cost? Isn’t it true that we have already spent US$20million on this project? WHO is approving this release of funds? From WHAT account? Who is paying for all the billboards praising the Jagdeo’s Champion filthood? Where are those funds coming from. Could the GRA and Sattaur explain the collection of VAT for those billboards? Where are the funds coming from, and to whom?

We will continue. We will build a Fippin dam to stop this filth!

>The Green Green Grass of Home – Part II

>Continuing from the previous Article, we use the “Seeing REDD” by Tom Griffiths of the Forest Peoples Programme:

1)March 2008: investment firm Canopy Capital and Global Canopy Programme (GCP) signed a preliminary agreement with the Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development. Under this deal, Canopy Capital will help finance the rainforest protected area for 5 years in return for ‘ownership’ of forest ecosystem services and a claim in any future profits.

2)The new saleable asset would involve carbon values and possibly rainfall, water storage, soil conservation, biodiversity, climate buffer and watershed values.

3) Canopy Capital aims to try and establish a best-practice model, protocol and standards for global profit-driven market-based payments for forest Ecosystem Services (ESS) and to create a stepping stone to a national scheme in Guyana and ultimately a global market in environmental services.

4)At this stage, Canopy Capital is exploring options for marketing ecosystem services through an ‘Ecosystem Service Certificate’ attached to a 10-year tradable bond.

5)The company advises that interest from such bonds could help pay for the maintenance of the Iwokrama forest.

6)Canopy Capital has a commitment to measure and value forest ecosystem services and to develop a financial and legal instrument to market ecosystem services. If this is achieved and sales of services are possible, then the investment company will have a major stake in any financial returns. How benefits would be shared between Canopy Capital, Iwokrama and local communities is not clear as the CC-IIC agreement remains confidential.

WEAK CONSULTATION
1) Canopy Capital and its legal advisers admit that the deal was not adequately discussed with the implicated communities but just discussed and agreed with the Board of Iwokrama, which has one community representative.

2)The community of Fairview that has titled lands within the Reserve was not consulted directly and communities that use the reserve and have never surrendered their ancestral ownership over the area were not directly involved.

3)Asked about why the deal had been shrouded in secrecy, Canopy Capital and Iwokrama advise that for reasons of ‘commercial confidentiality’ it was not possible to broadcast the issue before the deal was done and for this reason also the agreement remains confidential.

The Green Green Grass of Home – Part II

Continuing from the previous Article, we use the “Seeing REDD” by Tom Griffiths of the Forest Peoples Programme:

1)March 2008: investment firm Canopy Capital and Global Canopy Programme (GCP) signed a preliminary agreement with the Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development. Under this deal, Canopy Capital will help finance the rainforest protected area for 5 years in return for ‘ownership’ of forest ecosystem services and a claim in any future profits.

2)The new saleable asset would involve carbon values and possibly rainfall, water storage, soil conservation, biodiversity, climate buffer and watershed values.

3) Canopy Capital aims to try and establish a best-practice model, protocol and standards for global profit-driven market-based payments for forest Ecosystem Services (ESS) and to create a stepping stone to a national scheme in Guyana and ultimately a global market in environmental services.

4)At this stage, Canopy Capital is exploring options for marketing ecosystem services through an ‘Ecosystem Service Certificate’ attached to a 10-year tradable bond.

5)The company advises that interest from such bonds could help pay for the maintenance of the Iwokrama forest.

6)Canopy Capital has a commitment to measure and value forest ecosystem services and to develop a financial and legal instrument to market ecosystem services. If this is achieved and sales of services are possible, then the investment company will have a major stake in any financial returns. How benefits would be shared between Canopy Capital, Iwokrama and local communities is not clear as the CC-IIC agreement remains confidential.

WEAK CONSULTATION
1) Canopy Capital and its legal advisers admit that the deal was not adequately discussed with the implicated communities but just discussed and agreed with the Board of Iwokrama, which has one community representative.

2)The community of Fairview that has titled lands within the Reserve was not consulted directly and communities that use the reserve and have never surrendered their ancestral ownership over the area were not directly involved.

3)Asked about why the deal had been shrouded in secrecy, Canopy Capital and Iwokrama advise that for reasons of ‘commercial confidentiality’ it was not possible to broadcast the issue before the deal was done and for this reason also the agreement remains confidential.

The Green Green Grass of Home – Part I

The Green Green Grass of Home: our Guyana’s forests have been sold, politicized and raped. This Green Baby is being ripped apart by the careless and selfish actions of the Government of Guyana.

In this series we present the summaries of various articles presented by different writers on the subject.

This is an extract from REDD-Monitor, 3rd December 2008
1) Iwokrama scheme was originally set up in 1996, at a time when Guyana’s President Cheddi Jagan was keen to prop up his country’s flagging international credibility.

2) It was intended as a visionary and self-sustaining new scheme to balance conservation with sustainable rainforest use and provide world-class facilities for scientific research.

3) The economics of the scheme were never sound. Having built a large centre and employed numerous staff, it has always relied heavily on support from donors and, increasingly, the revenue from logging operations, which have now been allocated across half the area’s 370,000 hectares. By 2007, the scheme was effectively out of cash, and in search of new forms of income.

4) In 2008, Canopy Capital, in the form of Hylton Murray-Philipson, a former banker, and Andrew Mitchell, a rainforest canopy scientist and founder of the Global Canopy Programme. Canopy Capital contracted with the government of Guyana to ‘buy’ the ‘ecosystem services’ of the area, for an as-yet undisclosed sum.

5) Murray-Philipson and Mitchell have also been close advisors to the Rainforest Project of Prince Charles, who has been Royal Patron of the Iwokrama project since 2001.

7) Murray-Philipson said in an interview with Mongabay.com,“If you can’t make something work in Guyana, I’m not sure you are going to ever make it work anywhere.”

8)There may be more truth to this than he realises. On the basis of what has happened at Iwokrama so far, the precedent for these kinds of projects in terms of transparency, respect for indigenous rights, and consultation, is not very promising.

The Green Green Grass of Home – Part I

The Green Green Grass of Home: our Guyana’s forests have been sold, politicized and raped. This Green Baby is being ripped apart by the careless and selfish actions of the Government of Guyana.

In this series we present the summaries of various articles presented by different writers on the subject.

This is an extract from REDD-Monitor, 3rd December 2008
1) Iwokrama scheme was originally set up in 1996, at a time when Guyana’s President Cheddi Jagan was keen to prop up his country’s flagging international credibility.

2) It was intended as a visionary and self-sustaining new scheme to balance conservation with sustainable rainforest use and provide world-class facilities for scientific research.

3) The economics of the scheme were never sound. Having built a large centre and employed numerous staff, it has always relied heavily on support from donors and, increasingly, the revenue from logging operations, which have now been allocated across half the area’s 370,000 hectares. By 2007, the scheme was effectively out of cash, and in search of new forms of income.

4) In 2008, Canopy Capital, in the form of Hylton Murray-Philipson, a former banker, and Andrew Mitchell, a rainforest canopy scientist and founder of the Global Canopy Programme. Canopy Capital contracted with the government of Guyana to ‘buy’ the ‘ecosystem services’ of the area, for an as-yet undisclosed sum.

5) Murray-Philipson and Mitchell have also been close advisors to the Rainforest Project of Prince Charles, who has been Royal Patron of the Iwokrama project since 2001.

7) Murray-Philipson said in an interview with Mongabay.com,“If you can’t make something work in Guyana, I’m not sure you are going to ever make it work anywhere.”

8)There may be more truth to this than he realises. On the basis of what has happened at Iwokrama so far, the precedent for these kinds of projects in terms of transparency, respect for indigenous rights, and consultation, is not very promising.

The Green Green Grass of Home – Part I

The Green Green Grass of Home: our Guyana’s forests have been sold, politicized and raped. This Green Baby is being ripped apart by the careless and selfish actions of the Government of Guyana.

In this series we present the summaries of various articles presented by different writers on the subject.

This is an extract from REDD-Monitor, 3rd December 2008
1) Iwokrama scheme was originally set up in 1996, at a time when Guyana’s President Cheddi Jagan was keen to prop up his country’s flagging international credibility.

2) It was intended as a visionary and self-sustaining new scheme to balance conservation with sustainable rainforest use and provide world-class facilities for scientific research.

3) The economics of the scheme were never sound. Having built a large centre and employed numerous staff, it has always relied heavily on support from donors and, increasingly, the revenue from logging operations, which have now been allocated across half the area’s 370,000 hectares. By 2007, the scheme was effectively out of cash, and in search of new forms of income.

4) In 2008, Canopy Capital, in the form of Hylton Murray-Philipson, a former banker, and Andrew Mitchell, a rainforest canopy scientist and founder of the Global Canopy Programme. Canopy Capital contracted with the government of Guyana to ‘buy’ the ‘ecosystem services’ of the area, for an as-yet undisclosed sum.

5) Murray-Philipson and Mitchell have also been close advisors to the Rainforest Project of Prince Charles, who has been Royal Patron of the Iwokrama project since 2001.

7) Murray-Philipson said in an interview with Mongabay.com,“If you can’t make something work in Guyana, I’m not sure you are going to ever make it work anywhere.”

8)There may be more truth to this than he realises. On the basis of what has happened at Iwokrama so far, the precedent for these kinds of projects in terms of transparency, respect for indigenous rights, and consultation, is not very promising.

The Green Green Grass of Home – Part I

The Green Green Grass of Home: our Guyana’s forests have been sold, politicized and raped. This Green Baby is being ripped apart by the careless and selfish actions of the Government of Guyana.

In this series we present the summaries of various articles presented by different writers on the subject.

This is an extract from REDD-Monitor, 3rd December 2008
1) Iwokrama scheme was originally set up in 1996, at a time when Guyana’s President Cheddi Jagan was keen to prop up his country’s flagging international credibility.

2) It was intended as a visionary and self-sustaining new scheme to balance conservation with sustainable rainforest use and provide world-class facilities for scientific research.

3) The economics of the scheme were never sound. Having built a large centre and employed numerous staff, it has always relied heavily on support from donors and, increasingly, the revenue from logging operations, which have now been allocated across half the area’s 370,000 hectares. By 2007, the scheme was effectively out of cash, and in search of new forms of income.

4) In 2008, Canopy Capital, in the form of Hylton Murray-Philipson, a former banker, and Andrew Mitchell, a rainforest canopy scientist and founder of the Global Canopy Programme. Canopy Capital contracted with the government of Guyana to ‘buy’ the ‘ecosystem services’ of the area, for an as-yet undisclosed sum.

5) Murray-Philipson and Mitchell have also been close advisors to the Rainforest Project of Prince Charles, who has been Royal Patron of the Iwokrama project since 2001.

7) Murray-Philipson said in an interview with Mongabay.com,“If you can’t make something work in Guyana, I’m not sure you are going to ever make it work anywhere.”

8)There may be more truth to this than he realises. On the basis of what has happened at Iwokrama so far, the precedent for these kinds of projects in terms of transparency, respect for indigenous rights, and consultation, is not very promising.