Lands Commission hosts soil degradation workshop

Sep 05, 2017 News

Identifies measures to control effects of drought

The United Nations Convention to Combat Diversification (UNCCD) has a vision to

Participants of the workshop on land degradation at the Savannah Suites of the Pegasus Hotel.

support the development and implementation of national and regional policies, programmes and measures to prevent, control and reverse desertification/land degradation and to mitigate the effects of drought.
The Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission, (GLSC) recently hosted a validation workshop of the land degradation neutrality target setting the programme of the UNCCD in Guyana.
The workshop held at the Savannah Suite of the Pegasus Hotel, last Thursday attracted a number of officials from the Lands and Surveys Commission and stakeholders.
Minister, Dawn Hasting-Williams noted that land is important for food security, natural resources conservation and preservation, and sustainable livelihoods. It would provide the direction to preserve the integrity of Guyana’s resources.
“With the recognition that Guyana could be affected by land degradation, the country ratified the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), acceded on June 26, 1997 and, effectively became a member on September 24, 1997.
Land degradation is characterised by the reduction and loss of the biological and economic productive capacity of land, and is utilized in this context in Guyana.
Key issues in Guyana are incidents of floods, droughts, salt water intrusion in agricultural areas, and natural resource utilisation in the mining, forestry and agriculture sectors (Source- National Action Plan to Combat Land Degradation, 2006). It could affect the population and natural resources of the country thereby increasing poverty and reducing development.”
Minister Hasting-Williams said that each year, 12 million hectares of arable land is lost to degradation and drought, and 1.5 billion people are affected globally.
Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) Target Setting Programme (TSP) is a new initiative intended to halt the ongoing loss of healthy land through land degradation.
“It creates a target for land degradation management, promoting a dual-pronged approach of measures to avoid or reduce degradation of land, and combines with measures to reverse past degradation.
“LDN is an achievement when globally or in a given landscape or terrestrial ecosystem the area of productive land remains stable or increases.”
The objectives of LDN are to maintain or improve ecosystem services; maintain or improve productivity, in order to enhance food security; increase resilience of the land and populations dependent on the land; seek synergies with other environmental objectives and; reinforce responsible governance of land tenure.
The LDN Programme objective is to enable country parties to define national baselines, identify measures for implementation and to formulate voluntary targets for LDN.
Hasting- Willliams noted that Guyana has opted into the Land Degradation Neutrality Target Setting Programme (LDN TSP) to help the country establish national voluntary targets for LDN and identify transformative projects to achieve these targets.
“Be reminded that the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission is the custodian of all public lands. It is the National Focal Point seeking to develop and mainstream sustainable land management across Guyana.
Land degradation reduces the quality of life; it would affect peoples’ livelihoods. The integrity of the land is needed to sustain productive capacity of land. Land degradation could affect food insecurity and poverty.
“Given the observed rapid upsurge in economic activity with the expansion in state lands for different uses, such as mining, logging, agriculture settlement expansion and growth in urban and rural areas; land cover change has been increasing.”
Inevitably, she said, the potential exists for it to expand in the future.

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