L-R Minister Robert Persaud, UNDP's Chisa Mikami and Surinamese gov't rep John Goedschalk symbolically sign the GSF Project Document

A multi-donor fund for the conservation and sustainable development of the unique ecosystems of the Guiana Shield countries has been launched in Georgetown with a call for proposals for grant funding.

The Guiana Shield Facility (GSF) which Guyana signed on to Monday at a ceremony in the Promenade Gardens was set up by the UNDP and the European Union (EU) to provide incentives for the conservation of the ecosystems.

The EU has contributed some 1.6M euros for the 2010-2011 initial phase while its contribution for the 2012-2014 remainder of the project is some 1.5M euros compliments of the Netherlands government. The UNDP is the implementing agency for the facility.

“We have an important mechanism through which funds could flow from developed countries, from the international community to the developing countries to build capacity, to help achieve the national priorities particularly those that are related to the development aspirations of the countries and the reporting requirements under multilateral environment agreements,” GSF Chief Technical Advisor Patrick Chesney told the gathering.

Natural Resources and the Environment Minister Robert Persaud said the GSF provides a sound approach for payment for eco-services and it has Guyana’s full support.

“Our recent experience at the international community level sometimes has not been too encouraging but certainly having this type of arrangement here would prove the wisdom and certainly will serve the type of approaches that we hope to develop resulting from this type of facility,” Persaud said.

His remark about Guyana’s international experience was an apparent reference to the delay in accessing funds being held by the World Bank which was released by Norway following its five-year US$250M sustainable biodiversity deal with this country.

The GSF, Persaud added, will also allow the government to deal with some of the issues that are not in sync with sustainable development such as illegal mining.

 UNDP’s Deputy Resident Representative Chisa Mikami said that over the next three years the GSF will support the implementation of projects in partnership with government and civil society and community-based organisations.

“For the latter access to funding will be through direct participation in government-proposed projects … or a call for proposals. Today I wish to inform you of the GSF call for proposals for those countries that wish to use it.

Grants will be awarded to those winning proposals that are aligned with the national priorities of those participating countries,” Mikami explained.

More information on the call for proposals could be had from the GSF Secretariat at UN Place, Brickdam.

Oversight for the project implementation is provided by a Regional Advisory Board comprising representatives from the stakeholders, the UNDP and donors.

The countries formally endorsing the GSF so far are Brazil, Colombia, Guyana and Suriname while work is underway to bring Venezuela and French Guiana onboard.