GUYANA is one of four countries to benefit from a €2.7M Regional REDD+ Project supported by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER), the French Global Environment Facility (FFEM) and the local government of French Guiana (Région Guyane).

This is according to Presidential Adviser and Head of the Office of Climate Change, Mr. Shyam Nokta, just back from a preparatory meeting of the proposed project in neighbouring Suriname.
The project’s overarching aim, he said, is to support the reduction of Greenhouse Gases (GhG) associated with deforestation and forest degradation through information sharing, and to strengthen the technical capacity of REDD+ focal points and forest-service institutions here in Guyana, and in Suriname, French Guiana and the Brazilian State of Amapa.
A technical platform, to be established in due course, is aimed at supporting the estimation of land cover changes and forest carbon stocks; identifying deforestation and degradation drivers; and modelling land use changes and socio-economic development.
At Thursday’s meeting in Suriname, Nokta reportedly acknowledged the importance of the project, which has its origins in a meeting among then President of Guyana Bharrat Jagdeo and the Ministers of Environment of France and Suriname at the United Nations Climate Conference in Poznan in December 2008.
Besides giving an overview of Guyana’s REDD+ initiatives under the framework of the Low-Carbon Development Strategy and with support from the Kingdom of Norway, he also emphasized the critical role the Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) System has played in helping determine with greater accuracy the extent of forest cover and drivers of deforestation, and the important role a robust MRV System could play in future REDD+ Mechanisms.
By way of demonstrating Guyana’s unequivocal support to the project, he outlined its willingness to share experiences and lessons learnt, while at the same time seeking support from the project to continue to build a REDD+ model.
Guyana’s Office of Climate Change and Guyana Forestry Commission are represented on the Project’s Steering Committee.
The Guiana Shield is one of the largest blocks of primary tropical forest worldwide, as well as a region with very high biodiversity. Boasting of as much as 90% of intact rainforest, it plays a critical role in mitigating climate change and in water regulation of the Amazon and Orinoco Basins.