–Agri Minister
A two-day workshop on the development of a monitoring and verification system for Guyana’s forests opened yesterday with Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud cautioning that new capacity has to be built at various levels.
The Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) in collaboration with the Office of Climate Change hosted the forum on the Monitoring, Reporting and Verification System (MRVS) at the Pegasus Hotel. Speaking at the opening, Persaud said the success of the workshop will enhance Guyana’s success at (climate change talks) at Copenhagen. “We will be in a position to announce there that through international collaboration, Guyana has been able to operationalize a successful demonstration model of a functioning and credible MRVS”, he said. A credible MRVS is pivotal to Guyana benefiting from funding under any new international climate agreement.
The workshop on Metho-dological and Organizational Design of a Future REDD+ MRV System in Guyana saw participation from several government and non-governmental organizations. It follows a September 14 meeting when a group of international experts, governmental and other stakeholders met at the GFC to discuss the requirements of a framework for the design of a MRV system for the country. That meeting culminated in the development of an overarching framework that outlined the key area of focus for an MRVS for Guyana.
The following day, a national workshop was held and the framework was presented and discussions were facilitated on several aspects of the outline. Among the key areas that came to the fore, were those of capacity, close networking among agencies in the process, and the need to move to add detail to the model in terms of defining each aspect of implementation covering both data inputs, outlining of processes to be executed and identification of desired outputs to operationalise the MRVS.
Persaud said that the current workshop will further the discussions on the main aspects that are to be considered in developing an MRV system that is both Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) compliant. He said that the aim is to have one that can easily be replicated for countries that have a high forest cover, but low rates of deforestation and forest degradation.
The minister noted that Guyana is at a point where several aspects of work on climate change have commenced both at the strategic and operational levels. In this regard, he pointed to the country’s Low Carbon Deve-lopment Strategy and the submission of its Readiness Preparation Proposal to the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility. He declared that the design of the MRVS is considered to be a core activity of the readiness preparation work. “It is important, however, that as we put our collective efforts into designing the system for Guyana, it must meet not only the exacting requirements of the international community, but also ensure that National Circum-stances are taken into account”, he added.
Persaud told the participants that over the course of the workshop, they will be able to develop a deeper understanding of the levels of capacity in various areas that would be needed to conduct monitoring and reporting. One of these areas includes the monitoring of change in forest cover over periods of time. At the national level, it will involve the use of remote sensing and GIS technology to conduct assessments at the national level for routine reporting, among other areas, he said. The minister also emphasized that there will be need for new capacity to be build at several levels.
Additionally, existing policy and legislative framework will have to be reviewed for compliance with the new thrust of the climate change agenda in Guyana.
“Monitoring and enforcement will need to be reviewed to guarantee the required greater level of compliance, leading ultimately to improved management of the forest resources, and even more reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation when compared to the business as usual scenario”, he said.
