Guyana’s deforestation rate continues to hold steady
–between 0.02% and 0.08% in last 23 years

INTERIM results of a study on the deforestation rate of Guyana’s forests in 2013 show that forest harvest has had, and continues to have, a very low impact on forests, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment has stated.

Interim results on 2013 deforestation, which are part of Guyana’s 4th Annual Assessment of Deforestation and Forest Degradation, have indicated a decrease in the rate of deforestation from 0.079% as the annual rate for 2012, to 0.068% as the reported rate for 2013, the Ministry stated in a media release.

Total deforestation for 2013 amounted to 12,702 hectares, as compared to 13,664 hectares for 2012, constituting a decline of 2,177 hectares.

The Ministry based its disclosures on the figures of the 4th annual assessment done under the Monitoring Reporting and Verification System (MRVS) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) through its programme for Reducing Emissions through Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+).

The results are being finalised at this stage, and will be incorporated into the MRVS Year 4 Report, which is expected to be released shortly.

The findings and methods of the recently concluded Year 4 assessment, the Ministry said, will be subjected to two layers of independent assessment.

The first assessment is to be done by a team of accuracy assessors, who will be working to establish the statistical accuracy, uncertainty levels and precision of the reported results, including the deforestation rate; and the second assessment will take the form of an independent third-party verification conducted by a company contracted by the Government of Norway, the Ministry disclosed.

The Ministry attributed the decrease in deforestation to mining activities which may be utilising new technology and/or more responsible and low-impact mining practices.

It said that a significant other causative factor has been the intensified monitoring activities by the natural resources sector and its agencies, in working with operators in the sector.

The rate of deforestation over the past 23 years has remained fairly stable between the range of 0.02% and 0.08%, and stands to compare quite favourably with the global average deforestation rate (computed across 85 developing forested countries as report by FAO), which is recorded at 0.52%.

This rate also compares very favourably with Guyana’s Reference Level as agreed under the Guyana/Norway Bilateral Agreement on Forest and Climate, which is set at 0.275% (computed as the mean between Guyana’s historic rate of 0.03% and the global rate of 0.52%).

“Forest sector deforestation continues to be at a very low level of 330 hectares, and justifies the assertions that forest harvest has had, and continues to have, a very low impact on deforestation…”

(By Clifford Stanley)