The Central Rupununi village of St Ignatius is hoping to use its $35 million carbon credit grant to establish a farine factory as well as to purchase a dump truck to work in the construction industry to bring in an income.
Toshao of St Ignatius, Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo), Wilson Lorentino shared that the village has a lot of natural resources such as gravel, white sand, and river sand, which are essential for the construction industry.
As a result of this, the village will buy a dump truck to complement the existing heavy-duty equipment to distribute these resources to villagers around Lethem.
“The village wishes to buy a dump truck because we already purchased [another piece of heavy-duty equipment]. We don’t have a dump truck so we want to purchase it so we could sell river sand and gravel. Here we have resources like gravel, white sand, and river sand. It’s much needed because we do construction and so in the village, and not only the village, we’re close to Lethem the town,” Lorentino explained.
Meanwhile, he said the establishment of a farine factory will allow the village to manufacture cassava bread, cassareep as well as other cassava products. This, he noted, will be the first of its kind in the village.
The village is aiming to submit its plans before month end, after holding additional consultations with villages.
St Ignatius is an Amerindian village located near the regional capital, Lethem, and the border of Brazil. The village is populated with over 2000 people.
$4.7B distribution
In February this year, a total of 241 Amerindian communities across the country each received grants ranging from $10M to $35 million. This initiative followed the historic agreement signed with Hess Corporation for Guyana’s carbon credits in 2022, which will see the country earning US$750 million for its forest.
A total of $4.7 billion (US$22.5 million), which represents 15 per cent of Hess’s payment for Guyana’s carbon credits, was disbursed in the various communities.
Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has explained that a strict mechanism would be followed to ensure accountability and transparency regarding how the funds would be expended.
Each community is required to create a separate bank account so the spending of the funds could be properly monitored. Moreover, the community cannot utilise the funds until a Finance Committee is named and the Village Development Plan is completed and endorsed by the village.
Jagdeo had expressed that the plans should be focused on either empowerment projects in the social sector, job creation, and/or on food security efforts.
