IDB benadrukt: Verkoop CSNR absoluut niet aan de orde

GFC NIEUWS- Naar aanleiding van de berichten in de media over het project “Introducing a Natural Capital Asset Class in Global Exchange Markets: The Central Suriname Nature Reserve Company” dat door Suriname in samenwerking met de Inter Amerikaanse Ontwikkelingsbank (IDB) wordt uitgevoerd, heeft de IDB de feiten van dit project in een fact sheet vastgelegd.

Deze feiten zijn ook gedeeld met enkele lokale media, terwijl ook vragen van bezorgde NGO’s door de IDB beantwoord worden.

Om misinterpretaties bij de vertaling te voorkomen is besloten om de IDB tekst in het Engels aan het publiek ter beschikking te stellen, meldt het NII.

De volledige fact sheet van de IDB is hieronder te lezen, terwijl hieronder twee belangrijke passages uit de IDB fact sheet worden geciteerd:

“The project recognizes the Republic of Suriname as the owner of the CSNR, including its land and economic rights. Suriname retains ownership of the land and said ownership would not be affected by the project.

The project did not and does not contemplate the transfer of lands or of rights for extractive activities such as mining or logging to the proposed listed entity. As part of the project design and execution, consultations on approaches to financing natural capital conservation were undertaken by IVE with a range of conservation NGOs in Suriname.”

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Volledige tekst van de IDB:

Briefing on Project: “Introducing a Natural Capital Asset Class in Global Exchange Markets: The Central Suriname Nature Reserve Company”

The project “Introducing a Natural Capital Asset Class in Global Exchange Markets: The Central Suriname Nature Reserve Company” was approved by the Donors Committee of the IDB Lab on December 6 2017, based on the project design documents and explicit non objection of the Government of Suriname. The Intrinsic Value Exchange, Inc. (“IVE”) was designated as the Executing Agency, which implements the project.

Financing from IDB Lab included US $882,000 in reimbursable (loan) financing and US $218,000 in non-reimbursable (grant) financing. Part of IDB Lab’s grant resources would be used to develop an environmental and social safeguards system, and to strengthen the fiduciary and procurement capacity of IVE. The counterpart financing of US 3,325,500 was to be raised and invested by IVE.

The project sought to develop an innovative model for financing conservation and sustainable management of the Central Suriname Nature Reserve (CSNR). The CSNR is a preserve created by the Government of Suriname in 1998 and was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2000. Suriname has tremendous ecological wealth that, with the exception of limited ecotourism, is not being valued or monetized sustainably. It was recognized by the project team that existing methods to finance the sustainable management of this natural capital asset were not sufficient to conserve this and other important natural capital assets.

The purpose of the model that was proposed was to undertake a valuation of the potentially monetized ecosystem services afforded by the CSNR such as fresh water provisioning, carbon credits and eco-tourism, and to raise capital investment via the listing of a new entity that would have rights to such ecosystem services on an international stock exchange. With regards to the governance of the listed entity a broad stakeholder participation in the equity is envisioned, including, tribes and communities near the CSNR, and the general public. The listed entity would have a board that represents all these stakeholders. The natural asset owners would transparently assign a type of license for use of these ecosystem services to the listing entity, in compliance with environmental and social management applicable in Suriname. Proceeds of such arrangements would be invested in Suriname conservation efforts and ensuring compliance with the stipulated local environmental and social requirements in Suriname.

The capital created through the listed company was expected to create a flow of funds to the listed company, the government and, the people of Suriname. This would accumulate funds for the government to invest protecting a globally important rainforest habitat. In essence, the project’s intent was to pilot a highly innovative model to raise financing for sustainable management of natural capital assets. As a stakeholder, with this project the people of Suriname would benefit through the continued conservation of the CSNR, and through the financing that will favor development of economic activity that is more aligned with a sustainable future. This economic activity will generate jobs and income associated with the monetization of the natural capital within the CSNR.

The project recognizes the Republic of Suriname as the owner of the CSNR, including its land and economic rights. Suriname retains ownership of the land and said ownership would not be affected by the project.

To date, the specific structure and ownership of the entity to be listed has not been agreed by the Government of Suriname and IVE. No transfer of rights for eco system services has occurred.

At the IDB Group, we take very seriously all information that points to integrity risks in the projects we finance. We have robust mechanisms to detect, receive and investigate allegations of fraud, corruption and other prohibited practices. Individuals or institutions can report instances of prohibited practices in IDB Group-financed projects to our Office of Institutional Integrity (OII), which investigates allegations of the occurrence of such practices. All information related to the IDB Group integrity mechanisms as well as information regarding the channels to submit allegations can be found at www.iadb.org/integrity.

Het bericht IDB benadrukt: Verkoop CSNR absoluut niet aan de orde verscheen eerst op GFC Nieuws.