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UN declares 2011 as Int’l Year of Forests

Jan 16, 2011 News

– Deforestation rate proven at 0.06% – Agri Minister

Despite more and more stringent demands by rigorous overseas markets for its forest products, Guyana has continued to gain access.
This was disclosed Friday by the Ministry of Agriculture, in his message to recognise the fact that the United Nations has declared 2011 as the International Year of Forests.
According to Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, the commemoration provides an excellent platform to increase awareness of the connections between healthy forests, ecosystems, people and economies.
“Forests are an integral part of global sustainable development. Forests cover 31% of the earth’s total land area. According to World Bank estimates, more than 1.6 billion people depend on forests for their livelihoods whilst 300 million call forests their home. The forest products industry is a source of economic growth and employment, with global forest products traded internationally in the order of US$270 billion.”
With Guyana’s forest providing a home to approximately 8000 plant species and in excess of 1000 species of terrestrial vertebrates, Persaud noted that the resources of Guyana are used for multiple purposes including the harvesting of produce, agriculture, research, ecotourism, Amerindian reservations, conservation and protected areas and biodiversity reserves.
“Forests are an integral part of Amerindian culture, and communities make use of forest resources as a source of food, building materials, fibres for textiles and weaving, medicine, tannins and dyes. Several communities are involved in commercial harvesting and utilization of forest resources.”
Forestry’s contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), traditionally measured from output of logs, roundwood and sawnwood, over the past five years has been a significant 3.4 % earning US$270M with over 25,000 persons employed in the sector.
According to the Minister, the forest sector in Guyana is of tremendous importance not only as a contributor to the timber and forest products sub-sector, but also in the fight against climate change.
Guyana has since gone ahead and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Norway that outlined a cooperation framework over the next five years.
“The MoU is accompanied by a Joint Concept Note that details the main aspects of the agreement which are: sustainable forest management; maintaining a low rate of deforestation and forest degradation; strengthening various identified REDD+ enabling indicators and activities for accelerating REDD+ efforts; reporting on REDD+ performance indicators of which forest legality is one aspect, among other areas.”
For this year, Persaud noted, Guyana will continue to deploy its pristine forests in climate change mitigation activities such as those being targeted under the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, and the Forest Investment Program. Under these programs, Guyana will seek to further enhance its good stewardship of the forests, continue to provide global climate and other environmental services, and access financing from international and bilateral partners to reduce pressure on forests by providing low carbon alternatives.
“We will also be engaged in updating key policy and operational documents to support recently revised legislation. Additionally, Guyana’s forests will be subject to independent forest monitoring and we will continue developing the world’s first national Monitoring, Reporting and Verification System.”
The government official stressed that Guyana must be proud of the fact that even though it has been harvesting its forest resources for centuries, it has done so in a “most” responsible manner and in keeping with international best practice.
“Testimony to this is the fact that our rate of deforestation has been scientifically established as 0.06 % and our products are able to access the most demanding and rigorous markets. We have also proven ourselves internationally to be innovative pioneers in the fight against climate change, providing.”

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