Consultancy Group completes mechanism to tackle land and forest issues
─ Final workshop hosted
─ Grievance and Redress Mechanism provides structured procedure to receive, process and investigate land and forest related complaints
DPI, Guyana, Wednesday, July 25, 2018
Guyana’s Grievance and Redress Mechanism, which aims to address land and forest-related issues is complete. Guyanese will soon be able to lodge complaints through a specially designed website.
A final workshop on the GRM was hosted today at the Cara Lodge and saw the participation of representatives from the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC), Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GL&SC), World Wildlife Fund, Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), among others.
The Consultancy Group (TCG) after signing the contract with the Ministry of Natural Resources in 2017 for the completion of the GRM, hosted a number of regional workshops and consultations to craft the Mechanism.
The completion of the GRM is part of Government’s efforts of advancing its readiness under the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) Project to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+).
Coordinator of the FCPF, Ministry of Natural Resources, Clayton Hall said the FCPF also addresses those issues that affect the quality of life in the Hinterland, Indigenous and forest-dependent communities.
The Natural Resources Ministry requested eight deliverables under the project, which included an assessment of the existing formal and informal feedback on grievances.
It also involved a review and analysis of the historical REDD+ related complaints.
Development Consultant, Lawrence Lachmansingh highlighted that good GRMs are built on eight core principles, among them, legitimacy, accessibility, predictability and equity. It is on these principles, he noted, that the GRM was developed.
Lachmansingh proposed that there be one medium through which all REDD+ related complaints are lodged to ensure efficiency in response.
The GRM provides a structured procedure to receive, process and investigate complaints and to also engage and promote dialogue with affected parties or communities.
The development of the GRM comes under the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the governments of Guyana and Norway, to create a REDD+ model that would demonstrate how REDD+ can align the development objectives of forest countries with the world’s need to combat climate change.
Almost GYD$800Million (US$3.8million) has been set aside to support technical cooperation through this agreement to execute the FCPF project in Guyana in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
By: Stacy Carmichael
Images: Kennyann Bacchus