…Contends he must be sent to Privileges CommitteeAfter House Speaker, Dr. Barton Scotland, granted a motion to have Opposition Member, Juan Edghill,Opposition Chief Whip, Gail Teixeirareferred to the Committee of Privileges; a similar proposal was then brought yesterday by Opposition Chief Whip, Gail Teixeira against Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman and Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo.Teixeira’s request to have the two placed before the said Committee was not successful. But the request itself led to heated exchanges among Parliamentarians.Teixeira’s request stemmed from a letter she wrote to the House Speaker on April 26, last.She reminded Dr. Scotland that during the 2016 Budget debate, Trotman, speaking on his sector,Jerseys NFL Cheap, said, “We were met with an alarming situation where we discovered that 100 percent or all of our productive forest was allocated by the past Government.”The Opposition Chief Whip said that Nagamootoo then repeated this statement.“They both asserted that all of Guyana’s productive forest was allocated by the previous PPP/C Governments, mainly to foreign investors.“Mr. Speaker,Cheap Jerseys For Wholesale, there is publicly available and internationally verified reports that demonstrate that these statements are untrue and have caused much embarrassment to the country and the Guyana-Norway Partnership,” expressed Teixeira.The Parliamentarian contended that Guyana’s forests cover an area of 18.4 million hectares. She said thatNatural Resources Minister, Raphael Trotmanthe breakdown of this area is summarized on Page Five of the latest Monitoring Report and Verification (MRV) report which was independently verified by an agency engaged by the Norwegian Government.This report, she said, summarizes Guyana’s forest as follows (millions of hectares): State Forest Area – 12,249; Titled Amerindian lands (including newly titled lands) – 2,582; State Lands – 2,560; Protected Areas- 1,Cheap NFL Jerseys China,091; fatal Area 13, 433, 00.The Opposition Member asserted that the Guyana Forestry Commission’s (GFC) website under Publications provides information on the State Forest allocations as at February 2016. She said that the information there illustrates that there are 12,594,Cheap NFL Jerseys Free Shipping,000 hectares of Total State Forest Estate of which 7,131,Wholesale Jerseys From China, 923 hectares have been allocated as Total Forest Allocated (Management by the GFC) and 5,412,077 hectares remain Unallocated State Forest Estate.Teixeira said that the same website advises on the holders of these allocated forests lands.“Furthermore, as you are aware, forest management standards within the allocated concessions are among the highest in the world. Deforestation and degradation, as well as governance standards, have been independently verified and assessed since the commencement of the Guyana-Norway partnership on forests in 2009.”“The most recent Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (NIRV) report dated October 2015 shows that Guyana’s forest cover has a deforestation rate of 0.062 percent, one of the lowest rates in the world,”House Speaker,Dr. Barton Scotlandexpressed the Parliamentarian.In light of the following, Teixeira on behalf of the entire Opposition, called for Trotman and Nagamootoo to apologize for misleading the House.She said that a failure to do so would result in her seeking the Speaker’s permission to bring a privilege motion against the members.Dr. Scotland then gave Trotman an opportunity to respond. Out of concern, the Minister of Natural Resources demonstrated “sacrificial love” for his Cabinet colleague as he made a request for Nagamootoo to be exonerated from Teixeira’s request.He said that the Leader of the House was simply repeating statements that were made by him. Trotman said that since he is the intended target of the opposition’s attack, then the First Vice President ought to be excused.As it relates to his statements on Guyana’s productive forests, Trotman said that he relied on documents that he was provided with. He noted as well, that those said documents were provided to his colleagues on the western side of the House and they had not objected then.Trotman committed to providing the documents again which he used to inform his position at the time. He insisted that the documents show that all the productive lands had been allocated.The Minister also strenuously rejected the allegation that his statements had affected the Guyana-Norway partnership. In fact, the Minister revealed that he was written to by the United Kingdom of Norway congratulating him on making the process transparent.Trotman said that he made his statements without