Guyana’s President David Granger today appealed to the United Nations for help to preserve and protect the Guiana Shield which he said is a global resource for the survival and sustainability of the planet.
He was addressing the time addressing the 72nd United Nations General Assembly.
The Guiana Shield is a region found in northeast South America, the higher elevations of which are called the Guiana Highlands.
“Guyana is part of the Guiana Shield, one of the world’s last remaining blocs of pristine rain forests. The Guiana Shield is the source of 15 percent of the world’s freshwater reserves. The Guiana Shield biodiversity provides eco-system services such as food, freshwater and medicinal products,” Granger said.
“It provides environmental services such as the regulation of the water cycle, water quality and pollination. The shield’s forests capture and store carbon, thereby mitigating the greenhouse effect. In other words, the shield is essential to life on planet earth.”
As the Caribbean region struggles to deal with the effects of climate change, the Guyana President took the lead in addressing the subject which is expected to the be featured by his regional colleagues when they address the UN this week.
“Climate change is not a fiction. It is not the invention of a few extremists. The small island states of the Caribbean and parts of North America felt the devastating fury of a series of hurricanes – Harvey, Irma, Jose, Katia, Lee and Maria – to whose frequency and ferocity mankind has contributed through the reckless exploitation of earth’s resources,” Granger said.
He noted that Hurricane Irma was a “deadly” and “destructive” and highlighted the extreme vulnerability and fragility of the small island developing and low-lying coastal states of the Caribbean.
Some 42 deaths have been blamed on Hurricane Irma which has decimated many countries in the Caribbean including Anguilla, British Virgin Islands and the Dutch and French island of St. Maarten / St. Martin.
Granger said Guyana is playing its part within the limits of its resources to provide relief to the populations of sister Caribbean states which have been impacted by the recent dangerous hurricanes.
“Guyana signed and celebrated the Paris Agreement on Climate Change last year in this very hall. We renew our commitment to its goals this year. This is a demonstration of Guyana’s pioneering role in global environmental stewardship,” he said.
