OCCASIONAL PAPER The context of REDD+ in Guyana Drivers, agents and institutions Vanessa Benn Raquel Thomas Pham Thu Thuy Patrick Chesney Moira Moeliono Bimo Dwisatrio Cynthia Maharani Ha Chau Ngo OCCASIONAL PAPER 201 The context of REDD+ in Guyana Drivers, agents and institutions Vanessa Benn Iwokrama International Centre for Rain Forest Conservation and Development Pham Thu Thuy Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) Moira Moeliono Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) Cynthia Maharani Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) Raquel Thomas Iwokrama International Centre for Rain Forest Conservation and Development Patrick Chesney Guiana Shield Facility Bimo Dwisatrio Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) Ha Chau Ngo Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) Occasional Paper 201 © 2020 Center for International Forestry Research Content in this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0), http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ISBN 978-602-387-132-2 DOI: 10.17528/cifor/007627 Benn V, Pham TT, Moeliono M, Maharani C, Thomas R, Chesney P, Dwisatrio B, Ha CN. 2020. The context of REDD+ in Guyana: Drivers, agents and institutions. Occasional Paper 201. Bogor, Indonesia: CIFOR. Photo by R Thomas Guyana Forest Canopy CIFOR Jl. CIFOR, Situ Gede Bogor Barat 16115 Indonesia T +62 (251) 8622-622 F +62 (251) 8622-100 E [email protected] cifor.org We would like to thank all funding partners who supported this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Fund. For a full list of the ‘CGIAR Fund’ funding partners please see: http://www.cgiar.org/our-funders/ Any views expressed in this publication are those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of CIFOR, the editors, the authors’ institutions, the financial sponsors or the reviewers. Contents Acknowledgments v Executive summary vi Acronyms viii 1 Introduction 1 2 Methods 2 3 Drivers of deforestation and degradation 3 3.1 Historical overview of forest cover change 3 3.2 Main drivers of forest cover change 11 3.3 Mitigation potential, assessment of carbon stocks and emission factors 16 4 Institutional, environmental and distributional aspects 19 4.1 Governance of forest and land 19 4.2 International, regional and national policies 21 4.3 Decentralization and benefit sharing 24 4.4 Indigenous rights 25 4.5 Tenure rights to carbon, land and trees 26 5 The political economy of deforestation and forest degradation 28 5.1 Political context 28 5.2 Political economy of drivers of deforestation and degradation 29 6 The REDD+ policy environment 32 6.1 Broader climate change policy context 32 6.2 Institutional setting for REDD+ 33 6.3 REDD+ financing 34 6.4 REDD+ benefit sharing mechanism 35 6.5 Monitoring, reporting and verification 36 6.6 Safeguards, stakeholder inclusion and engagement 37 7 3E implications for REDD+ 39 7.1 Effectiveness 39 7.2 Efficiency 44 7.3 Equity 45 8 Conclusions 47 References 49 iv List of figures, tables and boxes Figures 1 Simplified national vegetation map 1:1,000,000 5 2 Historical (left) and Year 6 (right) forest changes 7 3 Detailed vegetation map of Guyana (2001 data) 8 4 Accuracy assessment of forest degradation 10 5 Comparison of mining and forest areas – geochemical map of Guyana’s gold (left) and map showing vegetation of Guyana (right) 13 6 Perception of corruption in Guyana (2012–2018) 28 7 GRIF flow of funds 34 8 National Monitoring, Reporting and Verification System (MRVS) 36 9 Forest carbon sampling design 37 Tables 1 Forest definitions according to the FAO and Marrakech Accords 3 2 Categories of land use in Guyana 4 3 Land use area under different tenure arrangements 5 4 National land uses (2017) 6 5 Process of establishing forest areas 6 6 Trends in forest cover change in Guyana (1990–2017) 7 7 Deforestation rate in Guyana, produced by different authors 9 8 Main drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in 2017 10 9 Types of forest concessions in Guyana 11 10 Annual deforestation and degradation by driver (1990–2016), in hectares 12 11 Annual rate of forest change by period and driver (1990–2017) 13 12 Total forest carbon stocks in Guyana’s forest based on average area (2001–2012) 16 13 Emission factors for deforestation by driver and stratum 16 14 Total emissions by driver and stratum (2001–2012) 17 15 Managers of natural resources in Guyana 19 16 International agreements 24 17 Estimates of land allocation in Guyana 27 18 Licenses issued (2011) 27 19 Annual average gold prices (USD per ounce at the London Fix) 29 20 Annotated list of climate-related policies, strategies and plans 32 21 Forest carbon sampling strata 37 Boxes 1 Enabling conditions and the legal framework for REDD+ policies in Guyana 33 2 Q&A on subnational REDD+ policies and projects 33 3 Key issues around MRV in Guyana 36 4 Voices of the people – an indigenous perspective 38 v Acknowledgments This country profile is part of the Global Comparative Study on REDD+ (GCS-REDD+) carried out by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). It was developed under Phase Three, which focuses on the assessment of policy design and actual impacts of REDD+ policies and measures, as a basis for achieving results in the broader context of landscape management, livelihood objectives and equity considerations (https://www.cifor.org/gcs/). The template developed by Maria Brockhaus and Monica Di Gregorio served as a guidance document for the profile. We are deeply appreciative of the generous assistance provided by the Guyana Forestry Commission which contributed updates on MRVS-related areas. The Commission partnered with the Iwokrama International Centre and CIFOR to co-host workshops and focus group meetings with key stakeholders, during which they shared updates on Guyana’s REDD+ activities. Special thanks also go to Mr. Hoang Tuan Long and Ms. Sarah Oakes for their kind support in helping us with reviewing and formatting the country profile. The involvement of all participants is also gratefully acknowledged, along with the information shared by them during workshops and other engagements. vi Executive summary This Guyana REDD+ country profile provides government and regulatory processes approve that contextual analysis on conditions which affect the project in the national interest. REDD+ policy environment in the country. It is based on reviews of existing literature, national Institutional environment and international data, reviews of legal documents, and selected expert interviews. The country profile Guyana has a large number of climate change and examines and discusses five areas: (1) drivers of sectoral policies that aim to promote sustainable deforestation; (2) the institutional environment; development. The Low Carbon Development (3) the political economy of deforestation and Strategy (LCDS) was succeeded by the Green forest degradation; (4) the political environment State Development Strategy (GSDS) as the main of REDD+, including actors, events and processes; framework to guide Guyana’s development. and (5) implications of the country’s current REDD+ is thereby seen as synonymous with REDD+ design for effectiveness, efficiency and LCDS/GSDS, although this integration equity. between LCDS and REDD+ has made REDD+ performance less clear. Through LCDS, Guyana Drivers of deforestation has raised funding to invest in the three activities which constitute the ‘plus’ of REDD+: the Systematic reporting on forest degradation conservation of forest carbon stocks; sustainable started in 2010–2011. Total forest degradation management of forests; and the enhancement of for 2010–2016 was 27,903 hectares (ha) while forest carbon stocks. The construction of a hydro- deforestation since 1990 was estimated to be powered plant that would reduce the country’s 151,822 ha. A major driver of deforestation and heavy dependence on fossil fuels was one of the forest degradation is mineral mining, particularly key features of the strategy. Guyana has signed gold mining. Forestry and agriculture are also many international commitments, including the drivers, but with less impact on the forest Paris Agreement and the Nationally Determined compared with mining. Many of Guyana’s national Contributions, along with the Forest Carbon policies, strategies, plans and actions do not Partnership Facility (FCPF), and European Union aggravate deforestation and forest degradation and Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade- are likely to have a positive impact on REDD+. Voluntary Partnership Agreement (EU FLEGT Conflicting claims of forestry with mining, 2018b). The country is also committed to reduced whereby regulatory infrastructure places mining impact logging, expanding the generation of clean rights above other land uses, is the main underlying and renewable energy, degradation monitoring and cause for deforestation and forest degradation. Protected Area management. The Protected Areas Lack of clear tenure is another. While forested Commission, working with partners, has begun to land is largely owned by the state, the legal basis explore the identification of an additional 2 million of land ownership and titling for indigenous ha of Guyana’s land mass that will be added to the peoples in Guyana is the Amerindian Act of 2006, Protected Areas of Guyana. This will take total and Amerindian communities have traditional Protected Areas to 17% of Guyana’s land mass. privileges to mine, along with the right to veto any The National