Guyana records lowest rate of deforestation in South America

[www.inewsguyana.com] – Guyana currently records a comparatively low deforestation rate according to Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment, Robert Persaud during his remarks at a press briefing to highlight Guyana’s Third National Report of Deforestation.

iNews understands that overall Guyana’s year three assessment indicated that deforestation rate is still low when compared to the rest of South America. The report, Minister Persaud said, summarizes forest change of forest to non-forest excluding degradation between January 01, 2012 and December 31, 2012 (12 months) at an estimated 14, 655 ha.

Over the reporting period, this equates to a total deforestation rate of 0.079 percent.  This rate of change is higher than Year two period (15 months) which was reported as 0.054 percent.

He emphasised that Guyana’s forest is governed by robust legislation and guidelines and whilst the increase in deforestation, the rate is considerably low less than 0.1 percent, it is among the lowest in the world.

Minister Persaud also pointed out that in the report, the area of deforestation attributed to mining increase of around 13 516 hectares from 9,891 hectares. The actual increase is only about 3 600ha against 18.5 million hectares of total forest, of which approximately 12.2 million hectares of which the State is managing more effectively.

Further, the Minister outlined that his Ministry will continue to work with all stakeholders to continue the effective management of Guyana’s deforestation that will contribute to the maintenance of a low rate of deforestation in Guyana.

Guyana on October 16, 2013 completed its third national Report on deforestation rates for the year 2012, under the Monitoring Reporting and Verification (MRV) System for REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Plus).

This is part of an ongoing work programme of which two reports were previously released in 2010 and 2011.