Sally Bunning, the leader of a team from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), on a recent visit to Guyana has expressed amazement at the extent of land degradation especially in Region Ten, due to sand mining and the loss of agricultural land to housing and business development in coastal areas.
The FAO team was in Guyana for a week of consultations and meetings with the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GLSC) to initiate the US$14.8 million Mainstreaming Sustainable Land Development and Management (SLDM) project in Guyana, according to a press release from the FAO. The project will incrementally improve land administration, policy and planning as a basis for promoting sustainable land use and the reclamation of degraded lands – steps that are essential to Guyana’s Green State Development Strategy.