Guyana has made an extraordinary offer to place its entire rainforest areas under the control of a British-led international body in return for development aid and the technical assistance needed to develop a green economy. Guyana is a former British colony between Venezuela and Brazil, and is home to fewer than a million people, but has intact rainforest in an area larger than England.

 

Officials are consider the offer. The deal would represent potentially the largest carbon offset ever undertaken, securing the vast carbon sinks of Guyana's pristine forest in return for assisting the economic growth of South America's poorest economy. Speaking in his office in the capital, Georgetown, on the Caribbean coast, Guyana's President, Bharrat Jagdeo, said the offer was a chance for Britain to make a "moral offset" and underline its leadership on the most important single issue facing the world – climate change. "We can deploy the forest against global warming and, through the UK's help, it wouldn't have to stymie development in Guyana."