Guyana is stepping up efforts to strengthen forest monitoring and improve environmental reporting in collaboration with the Global Green Growth Institute.
A two-day workshop opened on Monday as part of the project titled “Strengthening and Enhancing Capacities of Guyana’s Monitoring, Reporting and Verification System (MRVS)” and is being held at the Royal International Hotel.
The training focuses on building technical capacity within the Forestry Commission to improve forest loss monitoring, land-use mapping and the development of data-sharing tools used to track environmental changes.
Guyana’s MRVS plays a key role in measuring forest cover, detecting deforestation and reporting environmental data under international climate frameworks. The system relies on satellite imagery, geographic information systems and field verification to monitor forest conditions across the country.
Technical Advisor with the Global Green Growth Institute, Pete Watt, said the workshop is designed to train Forestry Commission staff to use new tools developed through the project.
“So we have a number of tools that were developed… we’re looking at improving mapping layers. So we have layers of non-forest, mangroves and also the vegetation maps,” Watt said.
He added the project aims to improve the frequency with which forest changes can be detected.
“And then the other tools we’re looking at is mapping forest change. So it’s really important to map change more frequently. So we developed a series of tools that helps the Forestry Commission do more real-time forest change mapping,” he explained.
Watt said the training is being conducted with a core team of Forestry Commission staff who will later integrate the tools into the national monitoring system.
“ the core Forestry Commission team is about eight persons. So we’ve been providing training and workshop training and also standard operating procedures for them to integrate the tools that we’ve been developing,” he said.
Guyana maintains one of the highest forest cover rates in the world, estimated at about 85 percent of its land area, and consistently records one of the lowest deforestation rates globally.
However, Watt said monitoring remains critical as economic activities evolve.
“We noticed that annually the forest loss changes depending a little bit on the land use drivers… perhaps a little bit more activity with construction and road building,” he said, noting that mining activity can also influence forest change trends.
“But overall, Guyana has a very, very low deforestation rate… it’s one of the lowest in the world,” Watt noted.
Strengthening the MRVS is expected to support Guyana’s broader environmental monitoring efforts and help ensure that the country’s forests continue to be managed sustainably while meeting international reporting obligations.
