The APA persists with distortion of facts to...

needs and those needs are progressively met in annual budgetary allocations. Additional to this, Presidential Grants, and now earned revenues from carbon credits sales would further add to village development.

From August 2020, the PPP/C has allocated billions to Amerindian development, which allowed for: increase in the Presidential Grants to villages; provision of agricultural support via trailers and tractors; and the 1,972 Community Service Officers (CSOs) who were terminated by the APNU+AFC Coalition government, with silent concurrence of the APA, have been rehired by the PPP/C government; restoring over $700million to Amerindian villages, and the complement of CSOs has since increased to 2,500. In 2023, alone, billions are budgeted for the completion of 10 new schools in Amerindian villages and four new major hospitals; as well as a $5billion special allocation.

These are facts that the APA avoid because these facts do not support the fallacies that they peddle. Rather, the deception that they have stood by are being exposed; the NTC chair has done so in his letter to the editor on April 15, 2023, and the PPP/C government has done so on several occasions.

FACT 5: RESPECT FOR FPIC

The PPP/C government has always emphasized the important role of consultations with Indigenous villages. In relation to the LCDS 2030 consultation, the consultation started in October 2021, and remained open for the entire duration of the ART-TREES consultation period and was not closed until after the (extended) ART-TREES consultation period was closed. The LCDS consultation was extended to seven months, and the LCDS 2030 was only finalised in July 2022, well after the ART-TREES consultation period had concluded. All inputs from those who participated in the national consultation, including on ART-TREES and benefitsharing, were taken on board.

Only when all these processes were completed did Guyana move ahead with the final stages of issuing credits for 2016-2020. All of this was publicly communicated throughout the process, and more in-depth conversations took place with a wide range of stakeholders, including elected representatives of indigenous peoples and those who participated in the Multi-Stakeholder Steering Committee.

There is now significant support for turning this progress into practical results and impact for indigenous peoples and local communities across the country, who have already received a total of US$22.5 million and are following their own villageled processes to determine whether and how to deploy these resources for the betterment of their own villages and communities.

Conclusion

For over two years, the APA has been invited to participate in, and to help lead, consultations across Guyana concerning the LCDS and ART-TREES. However, the APA was very selective in engaging in the consultations that it has now raised grievances about.

Further, the APA was asked to join other stakeholders on the LCDS Communications Sub-Committee– yet did not attend meetings or participate in any way. They neglected – even when asked – to come up with suggestions on addressing some challenges such as identifying translators fluent in local languages, thereby leaving this work to others.

Furthermore, the APA was asked – like other members of the Multi-Stakeholder Steering Committee -- to lead consultations. Unlike other members of the Steering Committee who led consultations, and gathered inputs and feedback, the APA never fulfilled this responsibility. After the consultations were completed, other members of the Steering Committee discovered that hundreds of the copies of the LCDS, given to the APA to help with consultation, were sitting in the APA’s headquarters in the city. Yet now the APA raises unspecific complaints about a consultation it did not participate in and seeks to drown out the views and voices of indigenous leaders and other local stakeholders who did take part.

Truth be told, the APA survives by presenting themselves as the ‘saviours’ of the Indigenous Peoples. The only way that they are able to attract certain types of donor financing is by creating a situation of need, and one that warrants them to ‘save the people.’

The APA has a reputation of attracting large sums from a broad range of donor organisations, and there is very little to show for it at the village level. Concerns have been expressed by several Indigenous villages, that only a minimal amount of that aid goes to villages. The vast amount of this aid allegedly goes towards expensive charter flights, high-end hotel bookings, and paying super salaries. The very fact that the APA has no means of income but from grant funding that is secured by painting a role for themselves, shows their agenda. They are able to pay themselves handsomely by showing Guyana in a bad light, by pulling down elected indigenous leaders, and by blocking earned finance to 242 Amerindian villages. The APA should publish its financial statements from multimillion dollar donor contracts from various development partners and this would undoubtedly reveal many of the concerns that Indigenous villages have been expressing about the association.

These Are The Facts

1. The APA consulted no one but themselves, flouted FPIC and disrespected village decision structures, in filing its complaint to the ART Secretariat to suspend carbon credits payments to Guyana, especially its indigenous population.

2. The APA has not justified how the stopping of payments to Amerindian villages would benefit the villages - specifically credits from eight years ago (2016).

3. The APA continues to be silent on their track record of use of donor financing totally devoid of transparency and reporting to the constituency they purport to represent.

4. Why should the carbon credit payment to villages be stopped until the APA says it is okay to proceed? It is unclear as to who has appointed the APA to be chief spokesperson for Indigenous Peoples.

5. How can the views of the APA’s office staff, of approximately 10 persons be made to represent a population of Amerindian Peoples of close to 100,000 persons who have elected their own legal representatives under the Amerindian Act?

Reflecting the reality in Guyana, one based on facts, does not serve the APA. The attack by the APA on the Chairman of the NTC, and the carbon credits programme has taken the APA’s narrow self-interest to a more destructive level. This time, they are taking away ‘bread’ from the Indigenous Peoples and securing their own personal financial standing by doing so.

This must stop. The APA cannot destroy indigenous peoples’ livelihoods and get away with it. The APA must do better and not continue to be driven by political affiliation and their misguided approach to justifying their relevance for the sole purpose of attracting donor financing.