HAVING recorded a successful year with respect to achieving the objectives set out in the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GLSC) in 2019 will host the 17th Meeting of the Committee for the Review of the Convention (CRIC) – the first for Guyana.
The conference billed for January, 2019, will be attended by over 450 persons from 100 countries, GLSC Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Trevor Benn announced during the commission’s end of year press conference on Tuesday.

Guyana has been a party to the UNCCD since 1997, and the Commission has been the National Focal Point Agency to the UNCCD since 2003. While the commission has made steady progress in fulfilling its obligations under the UNCCD through the implementation of the “Capacity Development and Mainstreaming for Sustainable Land Management Project (2012),” and the “Support the Alignment of Guyana’s National Action Plan to the UNCCD’s (2008-2018) Strategic Plan Project,” Commissioner Benn said that 2017 has proven to be the most successful year.

“The year 2017, has however, been the most successful year by far for Guyana and the Caribbean. For the first time in the history of the Convention, Guyana tabled on behalf of the Caribbean, a major decision on Capacity Building that was unanimously passed at the 13th Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP13) held in Ordos, China,” Commissioner Benn said.

During COP13, Commissioner Benn was elected as Vice President of the COP Bureau, marking the first time in the history of the UNCCD that a Caribbean person has achieved such a status. COP is the highest decision making body of the Convention.
Additionally, during the recent COP, Guyana was elected to Chair CRIC Contact Group. The CRIC is the subsidiary body to COP and assists in regularly reviewing the implementation of the Convention. “This is the first time that Guyana and the Caribbean have received the level of recognition and support by the Convention. COP13 was extremely successful for Guyana and the Caribbean as a whole. Great steps were made, which won Guyana and the Caribbean the admiration, respect and trust of many other delegations,” Commissioner Benn posited.

At COP13, Guyana was represented by Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan; GLSC Board of Directors Chair Paulette Henry, and Commissioner Benn. The hosting of the 17th Meeting of CRIC will be another plus for Guyana and the Caribbean. “The GLSC is also the national Focal Agency for the United Nations Committee of the Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM). The UN-GGIM aims to create a formal geospatial information coordination mechanism involving member states as the key stakeholder,” Commissioner Benn added.

He further added that, “The Commission, on behalf of Guyana, continues to contribute in a meaningful way at all levels to this important United Nations body and to ensure Guyana benefits significantly from international best practice in Geographic Information Systems (GIS).”

That aside, in 2017, the work of the Guyana/Brazil Joint Border Commission continued with a team from Guyana and Brazil working jointly to re-locate, refurbish and re-observe four border marks between Guyana and Brazil. Commissioner Benn said this cooperation is expected to continue until all of the border marks are located and refurbished. Also in the area of project development, the Commission has commenced the implementation of a US$14.8M Sustainable Land Development and Management (SLDM) Project. At the end of the project, it is expected that SLDM will be mainstreamed into policy, institutional and governance mechanisms to prevent degradation and restore degraded lands. Additionally, the project will help to strengthen institutional and human capacity for participatory and integrated sustainable land development and management. Focus will also be placed on local governance; strengthened in three regions for implementing SLDM.