– Dr. Martin Herold notes significant international interest and attention in the model
INTERNATIONALLY acclaimed expert on Reducing Carbon Avoid Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD), Dr Martin Herold yesterday underscored that a Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) is the right avenue to avoid an increasing carbon emissions profile and associated loss of forest as part of a country achieving its developmental objectives.

The co-author of the Global Observation of Forest and Land Cover Dynamics (GOFC-GOLD) Source Book on REDD made the observation at the opening of a two-day workshop on developing a Monitoring Reporting and Verification (MRV) System at the Pegasus Hotel in Kingston, Georgetown.

Noting that he has seen numerous examples of countries that have generated significant emissions while transitioning to emerging economies, Dr Herold said he would like to “particularly congratulate Guyana for having taken steps to deviate from this pathway towards a more climate-friendly direction”.

“In this context, Guyana is on the forefront internationally and has generated significant interest and attention…including those countries willing to support Guyana in its efforts,” he lauded.

“I would like to particularly highlight the support given by the Norwegian Government that, for example, has helped to make this workshop happen,” said Dr Herold, who is Professor of Remote Sensing at Wageningen University, a leading European university in the Life Sciences in the Netherlands.

He pointed out that forests, as storehouse of carbon, play an important role for the climate system and as part of Guyana’s LCDS.

The management of natural resources and sustainable forests, the expert noted, is essential to achieve the REDD objectives.

“Forests are important for many reasons, carbon being one of them. However, it is understood that we can only manage resources well if we are able to monitor them and the human activities that alter them.”

“This is true for the case of REDD and a system for measuring, monitoring, analysis, reporting and verification of changes in forest carbon. Only if Guyana is able to proof and quantify (on the national level) that its’ REDD action had a positive impact on the climate, it will be fully eligible for achieving REDD credits,” Dr Herold underlined.

He said though there are existing forest monitoring capacities and experiences in Guyana, REDD participation requires a much higher priority to be given to MRV than national forest monitoring in the past.

He stressed that significant efforts for building MRV capacities are needed to allow for a full results-based compensation of the carbon offsets and crediting.

Dr Herold told the gathering, which included representatives from several government ministries, Conservation International-Guyana and the World Wildlife Fund, that proven and internationally accepted approaches exist here and the objective of the two day discussion is to further develop a road map for building a sustained MRV system within Guyana.

Starting with available data and capabilities, attention will be channelled during the discussions on defining what Guyana’s particular gaps and needs are for forest carbon monitoring.

Dr Herold is an expert in the field of remote sensing, and digital processing and modeling of geographic data as well as local and regional planning.

His recent technical activities focus on harmonisation and validation of land cover datasets, and studying the science-policy interface in the context of global change and evolving carbon markets.