- Countries in the Guyana Shield have lower levels of deforestation than other countries in the Pan-Amazon, although their forests continue to be threatened by wildcat mining and land invasions.
- As a high cover-low deforestation country, Suriname intends to use revenues from REDD+ to invest in sustainable forest management.
- In Venezuela, though deforestation continues at alarming rates, the state has little intention to intervene in the extractive sectors responsible for forest loss.
The three Guiana Shield countries do not suffer from high deforestation levels, which should render their commitments to eradicate deforestation more credible. Nonetheless, some government officials continue to promote conventional development polices.
Guyana’s most recent NDC commits the government to implementing regulations and incentive programmes to avoid deforestation and forest degradation, along with a comprehensive land use plan that purposes to rationally exploit the nation’s resources. Presumably, these commitments will be financed by the Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund (GRIF), a jurisdictional REDD+ programme established in 2010 following an agreement between Guyana and Norway to maintain (and further reduce) Guyana’s historically low deforestation rates. As of January 2024, the fund had received US$ 150 million in payments, of which about US$ 70 million have been disbursed to support a variety of projects, from developing a national green development plan to formalising titles of Indigenous territories. Guyana has also joined the ART system for future trade in REDD+ credits.
Suriname has made a similar commitment in its NDC by emphasizing its status as a high cover – low deforestation country (HFLD) and its expectations that the international community will provide financial support to help maintain (and improve) the status quo. The country recently filed to claim REDD+ credits using a UN-approved mechanism similar to the jurisdictional approach used by Guyana; it is also essentially demanding compensation for its historically low levels of GHG emissions from deforestation.
The government proposes to use REDD+ revenues to invest in sustainable forest management that ensures the participation of all legitimate stakeholders and commits to strict control and supervision of the forest sector. These measures will be implemented in the context of a new land use planning process that will promote forest conservation and reforestation, as well as improve management and expand protected areas, with the involvement and participation of Indigenous and tribal communities.
Skeptics might point out that these are common ‘generic’ commitments and must be viewed warily in light of a history of exploitive timber harvesting and difficult-to-control wildcat gold mining. More worrisome are recent reports that land might be sold (or granted via concessions) to Mennonite settlers, who have a well-documented history of colonization, deforestation and rapid expansion.
Venezuela has no coherent policy for combating deforestation. This is explicitly recognized in the country’s NDC filing to the UNFCCC. The commitment to the UNFCCC reflects the national rate of forest loss, of which only a small fraction occurs within the two states considered to be part of the Amazon biome (Bolívar and Amazonas). Most deforestation in those jurisdictions is linked to mining, and there is little likelihood of government intervention that might negatively impact an economic sector that is providing it with most of its foreign exchange reserves.
Banner image: Deforestation for gold mining in Suriname. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.
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