I refer to a press release from the Department of Public Information dated 06 July on the illegal sale of carbon credits from forests on titled Amerindian Village Lands. The press statement mainly includes legally incorrect and misleading statements by the Vice-President, and which are damaging to Amerindians.
Does Vice-President Bharrat Jagdeo understand that a consultation held by government staff in an Amerindian Village on his Low Carbon Development Strategy 2030 is not the same as a vote at a Village Meeting convened according to the Amerindian Act 2006? A consultation has no legal weight and is not a substitute for the procedure laid down by law. And since the Vice-President refers often to his view that the lopsided Production Sharing Agreement signed in June 2016 cannot be negotiated with EEPGL and co-venturers because of ‘sanctity of contract’, it is not clear why the Vice-President seems to feel that the legally valid Amerindian Act can be ignored to allow government theft of titled Amerindian resources.
That the government has chosen to hand out large funds to Amerindian Villages for village plans prepared on a government template is government’s choice. It has nothing to do with the sovereign right of titled Amerindian Villages to decide themselves how they manage their own resources. Editor, Amerindians in Guyana have steadfastly defended their territorial rights, since the arrival of the first Europeans on their shores. Amerindians have suffered from land grabs throughout history. Their territorial rights include the legal right that can be exercised by two-thirds of the members of each titled village to dispose (or not) of their aboveground resources. The safeguards against continuing land grabs set out in the Amerindian Act 2006 cannot be set aside by Winrock’s ART-TREES, Aster Global or the Government of Guyana.
By Janette Bulkan
Article originally published here: https://www.stabroeknews.com/2023/07/08/opinion/letters/a-consultation-by-govt-staff-in-an-amerindian-village-is-not-the-same-as-a-vote-at-a-village-meeting/
