[www.inewsguyana.com] – Forest Expert of Global Canopey, Jon Parsons says he is impressed with Guyana’s leadership in forest management.
“I can walk away from the project now feeling that Guyana’s forests are now protected and I also feel proud that Guyana has now been able to take the lead in the rest of the world in showing them how to implement the MRV programme,” Parsons said.
He was speaking at the WWF Community Monitoring Reporting and Verification (CMRV) System on Friday, August 29 where he also stated, “Yes the project is coming to an end which is a sad thing, the great thing I can feel now is that I can walk away from the community in those areas (of the North Rupununi) knowing that they have a solid grasp of the technology that they use”.
He added, “I feel now that they have the ability to take control of their own natural resources; they can monitor their own natural resources and make much better decisions on how those natural resources are managed” this resulted from a 3 year CMRV project in the area of capacity building in project management and the use of technology.”
Same techniques are being transferred to a MRV project in Brazil and the Guyana model will be applied to Brazil and also members of the local project management team will be going to Brazil to help train communities there and to pass on skills and experiences relating to Community MRV.
Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment, Robert Persaud, who was also present at the event, stated that the national MRVS is in an advanced stage of development. Implementation commenced in 2009/2010.
“We are now able to reporting on national level deforestation and forest degradation which have been done in keeping with international best practice. This is also the first national scale system that is developed using high resolution satellite imagery at 5 meters resolution that is conducted annually,” Persaud said.
Guyana now offers to the world a global model on how routine MRVS can be implemented in a robust, transparent and replicable manner, he added.
According to Minister Persaud, the national MRVS has allowed for Guyana to monitor both deforestation and forest degradation aspects of forest carbon emissions impacts.
“Some countries have focused only on deforestation and in Guyana we have made it clear from the beginning that forest degradation is also a critical component and a priority for inclusion.”
Persaud pointed out that the national MRVS has been independently verified every year for the past three years by a third party international auditor, following international guidance for such audits, and all results made public.
