A community forest Moni-toring, Reporting and Verifi-cation (C-MRV) project involving 16 villages of the North Rupununi, was launch-ed on Saturday in Annai, Region Nine.
Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) is a key component of Guyana’s Readiness Preparation Pro-posal to the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility and it was done so that government could have presented to the international community the information that showed Guyana stuck to its commitment of being among the leading countries that promote sustainable development, the Govern-ment Information Agency (GINA) reported.
GINA said that the C-MRV caters for development of a community-based system to monitor the forest, land use, ecosystem services and wellbeing of the residents; providing support to the country’s national MRV system; creating a methodology to monitor impacts of future benefits to communities and Guyana and, working with other groups in the Amazon to develop a standardized system for the rest of the world.
“This project will bring social and economic benefits to the 16 communities involved, since over US$60M will be expended to implement and carry out the mandate of this project,” Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment Robert Persaud was quoted as saying. The launching took place at the Bina Hill institute and Persaud expressed gratitude to the many local and international stakeholders who have been and, continue to support the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), and Guyana as the leading pioneer in sustainable forest initiatives.
The C-MRV project was launched under the theme “Think Globally, Act Locally” and will see communities working with several local and international partners, including the Global Canopy Programme, Iwokrama, the North Rupununi District Development Board (NRDDB), the Guyana Fores-try Commission (GFC) and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), GINA reported.
“When our former President (Bharrat) Jagdeo articulated for the country as (a) whole to embrace the LCDS, the North Rupununi communities were among the first to step forward in identifying their role to play in this regard,” Persaud was quoted as saying. “The NRDDB has always been a consistent partner in such initiatives…so I want to commend the Board and to encourage you to see this project and undertaking as some impetus for you continue to play your role in promoting sustainable development,” Persaud said.
GINA reported that the minister also reminded residents about the agreement that was signed with the Norwegian Government that will see Guyana receiving over US$250M for ecological services. In order to receive the payments, he said several requirements and ‘benchmarks’ had to be fulfilled, and which saw the launch of a National MRV system at cost over US$1M. “So we have that national system that we have running for over one year and half and which we will have to continue…so far we have received resources transferred from the Government of Norway into the interim institution also known as the Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund (GRIF),” Persaud explained.
The C-MRV initiative, he said, is timely, since it will support the national system at the community level.
International pioneer in forestry conservation and Executive Director of the Global Canopy Programmes Dr. Andrew Mitchell was also present at the launch of C-MRV, and lauded Guyana for implementing the LCDS, GINA reported. “I have been working in tropical forests for over 40 years and in 2007, I learnt about Guyana’s challenge to the world, urging the international community to come up with a new way of looking at the forest…something Guyana must be commended for,” Mitchell was quoted as saying.
