Guyana: Almost all the measures of the economic and land component an emergency plan implemented

As a reminder, following the social movements of March and April 2017 in Guyana, a final agreement to end the crisis was then signed between the Government and the « Pou Lagwiyann ​​Dékolé » collective on April 21, 2017. In this agreement, the Emergency Plan for Guyana (PUG) provided for 30 measures, the cost of which is estimated at just over one billion euros, carried exclusively by the State.

Regarding the economic and land component of this plan, “ almost all of the economic support measures have been implemented “Says the prefecture in its press release, explaining that the land transfer process is in place, but that the free transfer requests made by local authorities and resident communities remain far below the expectations formulated by the Guyana agreements. .

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In fact, this third component of the Emergency Plan for French Guiana relating to support for the economy and land includes 8 measures, 5 on the economy and 3 on land. The assessment drawn up by the prefecture of Guyana shows that on these points, 3 commitments have been completed and 4 measures are being implemented. Firstly, in economic terms, all the sectoral support measures were provided from 2017, towards transporters, farmers and fishermen.

First observation, if the launch of a tax and social pact aimed at adapting tax measures on individuals and businesses has not really been carried out, the prefecture specifies that a study on the revision of the tax is carried out by the General Inspectorates of Administration (IGA) and Finance (IGF) on this topic and within the framework of the structural agreement with the Territorial Collectivity of French Guiana (CTG).

Next, in terms of land, measures were initiated with the creation from 1 January 2020 of a land mission within the State services, a one-stop shop for processing requests for the transfer of land in the territory. The requests remain, to date, lower than the objectives formulated in the Guyana agreements.

In detail: for the 250,000 hectares planned for communities, since 2017, 100% of the requests examined by the land allocation commission have been satisfied, i.e. to date 79 files representing 3,289 hectares. 15 applications are being examined for 91,235 hectares.

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For the 400,000 hectares of resident communities, it will be up to the Public Establishment for Cultural and Environmental Cooperation (EPCCE), the creation of which is in the process of being finalized, to rely on State services to define the potential locations. Finally, for the 20,000 hectares of the future SAFER, if the land mission has provided a complete inventory of the land available, the approval of the structure, the definition of its economic model and the formalization of its requests constitute the prerequisite for the transfer. .

In this expectation, 684 cases have been processed since 2017, representing 5,775 hectares transferred free of charge for the benefit of Guyanese farmers for their installation. For the entire Economy – Land component of the Guyana emergency plan, the investment represents approximately 14 million euros, financed by the State.

Damien Chaillot