US$21.8 million is to be pumped into a project which will assist Guyana to sustainably manage its lands, Commissioner of the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GL&SC) Trevor Benn said adding that it is a great step towards making his agency 21st century ready in the field. “We are operating on a 19th century infrastructure to deliver 21st century results. So our maps, for example, are from the mid to early 1900s. We need to update those maps,” Benn said at the handing over of a draft proposal of the document at his Upper Hadfield Street, D’Urban Backlands Office on Friday.
He added, “We need to bring up to date our land management systems, so that we know who has land, where it is located, the type of soil in existence in the area, and what the land is used for among other things.”
The Commissioner also pointed out that while there is much technological advancement globally, most of his agency’s documents are paper based and the project would help to set the transition to a computerized system.
“We have registers that are from the 1800s, and we need to bring that electronically, so you as a member of the public should be able to access that record, possibly at a fee, should you require, from your home,” Benn posited.
Another area of concern was the fact that when he assumed office at GL&SC, it was revealed that some persons have been waiting for up to two decades to get their land titles and he understood how frustrating this situation could be.
He said it is the aim, aided by the project, to cut those times so that processing would be completed within three months.
Last year, government had announced that GL&SC would be partnering with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on a sustainable land project. It was estimated then, that the project would have been implemented from January of this year.
Funded in part with proceeds from the Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund (GRIF) Programme to the tune of US$16.9 million and with another US$4.6 million coming from government, the project would help the GL&SC maximize on how it sustains and manages lands.
The partnership was the outcome of a meeting which Benn had held with FAO representatives.
The proposed project, among other things, is intended to promote good environmental stewardship in a green economy, strengthen monitoring and enforcement capacity and ensure compliance with sustainable land management practices.
It is also expected to increase land reclamation of degraded public lands and reduce degraded areas in relation to total land area. The draft proposal will be uploaded to the GRIF website where it will remain for a 21-day period, allowing stakeholders to scrutinize and provide feedback, and, or objections to government, before its consideration.
Benn said that before the drafting of the document, several agencies and institutions held consultations with the team, the last of which was a sensitization workshop in March.
Presenting the 150-page proposal was FAO Representative Reuben Robertson who again echoed the project’s objectives, stressing too that the five-pronged approach will tackle weaknesses identified during the consultation process. “From the discussions we had and consultations with the relevant stakeholders, we have been able to identity what are those weaknesses and how those weaknesses can be strengthened to reposition the Lands and Surveys Commission to be able to exercise its mandate,” Robertson said.
