Guyana is poised to take a leading role in global biodiversity discussions at the upcoming COP30, to be held in Brazil from November 10-21.
According to President Dr Mohamed Irfaan, the country will build on its expanding international partnerships and the upcoming Global Biodiversity Alliance Summit to shape a new era of biodiversity financing and action.
Citing the successes of the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), President Ali emphasised that Guyana’s approach goes beyond pledges, stressing that it is about delivering tangible solutions for the planet.
He made the revelations while speaking on the latest episode of United for Biodiversity: The Alliance Podcast, while sharing the vision behind the alliance and key aspects of Guyana’s green leadership.
“Guyana is now a leader on the issue of climate and environment. We’re leading most of the global forum on tropical forests, and the most natural offshoot of that is to expand our leadership to complement the entire eco-system around our forests–and that is biodiversity. The impact and damage on biodiversity over the last fifty to sixty years in our view is not given the type of global attention to address something that is so important to our own existence,” the President noted.
He stated that while the world has lost an estimated fifty percent of its global biodiversity, Guyana has been able to keep its own intact, as he cited the importance for the world to pay keen attention to issues surrounding this important topic.
He further emphasised that, as such, policy and market mechanisms are key elements in safeguarding Guyana’s biodiversity and that of the rest of the world.
Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) 2030, Dr Ali noted, is the perfect blueprint of a development strategy to showcase to the rest of the world how to maintain environmental sustainability in a resilient way.
“Our LCDS is focused on a holistic pathway to achieving national prosperity; a development strategy that is global in scope, scale and outlook, a strategy that positions Guyana as a leader on the issue of climate and environment. But more importantly it creates a development strategy and a pathway that shows the rest of the world that we can achieve prosperity, while at the same time safeguarding our environmental assets and creating livelihood options and economic opportunities without harming our environment,” he said.
President Ali emphasised that the LCDS is now considered a development asset which has integrated indigenous people into policy formulation, where direct transfer from earnings go directly into their communities.
“This is critical, especially as we move towards investing in eco-tourism, we have to keep that rich biodiversity asset intact for the type of economy and the type of sustainability that Guyana is pursuing,” he stressed.
The President said Guyana is providing strong, global leadership in terms of its forests, and is now seeking to transform that leadership to another level, hence its decision to invest in a global biodiversity alliance in an effort to safeguard the planet.
