The Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) has commenced its National Forest Inventory (NFI).
According to Department of Public Information release, the NFI is essential for forest management planning, concession allocation, and forest utilization. “The GFC legislation and the National Forest Policy require the GFC to execute strategic forest resource inventories in order to effectively plan for the sustainable management and optimal utilization of Guyana’s forests,” it says.
It explains that the multi-year project will see the updating of forest resource information that is essential for national and concession level planning and scientific research and referencing to support the modern outlook of the National Forest Policy and the Low Carbon Development Strategy. The last National Forest Inventory was executed some 50 years ago.
The release said the current implementation of the NFI is dedicated to field data collection in state forests by administrative regions, all except for regions Four and Five, where no state forests occur. In 2019, field work was completed for forty-eight (48) clusters which represented approximately 507,099.00 hectares of state forest area in Region Ten. In 2021, the GFC will begin by targeting clusters in Regions Ten, Two and Three; after which inventory teams will be moving on to Regions Six and Nine.
The NFI is expected to provide the following key benefits at the national level:
Stratification of Guyana’s forests based on the quantity and quality of forest resources in different areas, resulting in efficient zonation of forests based on intended use (timber, mining, NTFP etc.), maximising the multi-purpose potential of Guyana’s forests
Identification of areas for conservation and protection; and providing baseline data for understanding the forest dynamics in these areas.
Allow for efficient biological and ecological research by providing preliminary baseline data on forest species, composition and distribution.
Integration of forest inventories with GIS/Remote Sensing technology, using empirical national forest data to design specific technologies for the monitoring of Guyana’s forests.
Provide a reference dataset on forest resources for long-term monitoring and decision-making, including creating historical records of forest use for future generations.
