Guyana has completed its 4th Annual Assessment of Deforestation and Forest Degradation under the Monitoring Reporting and Verification System and it shows that the loss of forests last year was less than in 2012.
According to a release from the Ministry of Natural Resources, interim results on the 2013 deforestation rate indicate a drop in the rate of deforestation from 0.079% as the annual rate for 2012, to 0.068% as the reported rate for 2013. This is significant as it would enable Guyana to access more funds under the Norway forest protection agreement without penalty. Last year, Guyana lost US$20M as the deforestation rate for 2012 was above that for 2011,
Total deforestation is 12,702 hectares for 2013, the ministry release said. The main reason for this decline in the deforestation rate is a decrease in deforestation from mining activities which dropped to 11,487 hectares from the 2012 total of 13,664 hectares, a drop of 2,177 hectares.
The decrease, the release said, may be as a result of new technology and more responsible and low-impact mining practices.
“A significant fact influencing this decline in deforestation in mining has also been the intensified monitoring activities by the natural resources sector and its agencies in working with operators in the sector”, the release said.
Forest sector deforestation continues to be at a very low level of 330 hectares, the release stated.
The findings and methods of the Year 4 assessment will be subject to two layers of independent assessment: the first by a team of accuracy assessors who will be working to establish the statistical accuracy, uncertainty levels and precision of the reported results, including the deforestation rate; and the second assessment will take the form of an independent third party verification, conducted by a company contracted by the Kingdom of Norway.
The rate of deforestation over the past 23 years has remained fairly stable between the range of 0.02% and 0.08%, and stands to compare quite favourably with the global average deforestation rate (computed across 85 developing forested countries as report by FAO), which is recorded at 0.52%, the ministry release noted.
