CHAMPION OF THE EARTH:



ACCEPTANCE SPEECH

From
BHARRAT JAGDEO, PRESIDENT OF GUYANA
Seoul, Republic of Korea
22 April, 2010

I am deeply honoured to be here in Seoul to accept this award.
In doing so, I don’t see it as an award for myself as an individual. Rather, I
interpret is as an endorsement of the people of Guyana’s long-standing efforts to
help change the way the world values scarce natural resources.
For years, the people of Guyana have demonstrated real commitment to the
preservation of nature and biodiversity, most notably as it relates to our still
largely intact tropical rainforest. But they have also struggled against the global
economic reality that long term national development and protecting nature are
frequently competing, not complementary, objectives. Without changing this
reality, the world will fail to reverse today’s dangerous trends of climate change
and biodiversity destruction.
Regrettably, despite the very valuable efforts of many – and years of wellmeaning
philanthropy – much of the world’s biodiversity has been lost and more
than half of the world’s tropical forests have been lost in the last 60 years. I
believe that this is because for too long, we focused on stopping the
consequences of biodiversity loss, rather than addressing its drivers.
In Guyana, we didn’t want to just despair – we wanted to prove that it is possible
to change this economic reality. And the emerging climate change agenda’s
recognition of the importance of forests as an abatement solution provided us
with an opportunity to maybe start changing things.
So three years ago, we proposed two ideas. One – we said we would be
prepared to put virtually our entire rainforest, which is almost twice the size of the
Republic of Korea – under long term protection if the right economic incentives
were created. And two – we said we would use the payments we receive for our
forests’ services to re-orient our economy into a low carbon, environmentally
sound trajectory.
Now, we are putting these ideas into practice. The Government of Norway is the
first international partner to value some of the ecosystem services provided by
Guyana’s forest, and to start paying for them.
For our part, we are about to start investing those payments in our new economy.
Over the next five years, we will remove virtually our entire energy sector from
fossil fuel dependence, and we will catalyze new economic sectors to provide our
indigenous and other forest communities – as well as citizens across the country
– with valuable economic alternatives that do not put pressure on our forests.
We have learned lots. We are also showing that it is possible to create a better,
environmentally sustainable national economy without compromising our citizens’
legitimate aspirations for increased prosperity.
And therefore by extension, a sustainable international economy is also possible.
Many other forest countries are willing to step up. If their efforts are supported by
progressive international policies – where developed countries move their
economies onto a sustainable path at the same time as helping developing
countries who aim to do likewise – I believe that we can build out from national
experiences such as ours; protect forests and by extension preserve biodiversity;
unleash the biggest wave of green innovation the world has ever seen; and
create real benefits and opportunities for people across the world today and for
generations to come.

Thank you once again.

.

u see them few hungry black people

quote:

Originally posted by cain:
You guys would do anything to kiss his ass, wouldn't you?

KISSING HIS ASS RESULTING IN THE FREEBEE CONTINUING.

quote:

Originally posted by Inqubus:
u see them few hungry black people

Ur eyes pass people as a whole Amral should ban you. Mussi ur relatives ay talking bout

massive coolie turn out that them had to take a separate pic of the few hungry blacks that attended.

quote:

Originally posted by Inqubus:
massive coolie turn out that them had to take a separate pic of the few hungry blacks that attended.

Actually I am surprised at how few blacks are there given the party that was supposed to be.

Apparently the PPP isnt going to get too mnay soup votes from blacks.