Dear Editor
I support the statements of the Upper Mazaruni District Council (UMDC) which you reported on 28 June (‘Upper Mazaruni council restates that carbon trading consultations defective’). Any Amerindian Village Council can agree to dispose of natural resources of the titled Amerindian Village Lands only through compliance with sections 13, 14, 34 and 44 of the Amerindian Act cap. 29:01 2006. These sections require a properly convened village meeting and a vote of at least two-thirds of villagers in favour of such disposal. So far as I know, none of the titled Amerindian Villages has convened such a meeting or passed such a vote.
Consequently, the sale by the Government of Guyana of forest-based carbon credits was fraudulent, including from the 2.299 million hectares of forest on Village Lands on 01 December 2022; the Government had no authority to sell any of the resources on the titled Village Lands without explicit Amerindian agreement at Village level. This was a sale of stolen property, and Hess Corporation is likewise criminally guilty of purchasing such stolen property, having been informed of the illegality.
Both Winrock/ART as owner of the TREES scheme and Aster Global Environmental Solutions as auditor were informed in December 2022/January 2023 that their failure to apply the Amerindian Act led to these criminal acts. Both companies appear to be legally accessories to the crime of stealing titled Amerindian resources. In your report on the previous day – 27 June (‘Amerindian groups meet with carbon credits scheme verifier’), there was no sign that Aster Global had taken account of the information published in the Press in Guyana and Norway in December 2022 which had pointed out this illegality.
The UMDC would be justified in invoking the Judicial Review Act cap. 03:06 2010 to require the Government to restore the carbon credits to the affected titled Amerindian Villages, and to pay appropriate damages for the theft.
Sincerely,
