THE National Geospatial Policy and Action Plan for the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) have been submitted for Cabinet review, Commissioner of the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GL&SC), Trevor Benn, has disclosed.

“Both documents have been with Cabinet since the beginning of this year and we have been in touch with them in relation to the documents,” Commissioner Benn said, while assuring that the documents are under “active consideration”.

Benn, in a recent interview with the Guyana Chronicle, said the proposed National Geospatial Policy and the National Spatial Data Infrastructure are intended to improve data and information management across all sectors. NSDI was birthed out of the ‘Sustainable Land Development and Management (SLDM) Project,’ which is funded by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) in collaboration with the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission. SLDM is intended to support the development of land administration, policy and planning.

The NSDI is a digital and open-data geospatial information system which facilitates communications among different sectors and enhances decision-making processes. The action plan sets out the priorities for improving cooperation in data and information management.

Benn said, the Lands and Surveys Commission, as the lead agency on the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), has consulted with stakeholders in both the public and private sectors, on the National Geospatial Policy and the NSDI Plan of Action.

“We have made a lot of progress in the last three years in terms of designing and developing, and made ready for use these plans, and so, it is now with our political leaders to finalise and bring into action,” Commissioner Benn said.

The Guyana Police Force, the National Data Management Authority, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Public Health, the Guyana Defence Force, the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority, the Natural Resources Ministry, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission and the Guyana Forestry Commission are among agencies that depend on geospatial information in the country.

He said while these agencies have developed geospatial information systems, NSDI and the National Geospatial Policy are intended to synchronise them.

“What we are trying to do, is to have a coordinated approach to the work that is already being done by all of these agencies, and to set standards, so that we as a country would have one specific standard for the collection and dissemination of information,” the Lands and Surveys Commissioner explained. He noted that once the NSDI system is activated, the national data sets would be stored in a single from which they would be retrievable.

Senior Policy Officer in the FAO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, Sally Bunning, had explained that NSDI is a basic building block to build efficiency and a modern approach to land management and planning. The NSDI helps different sectors to combine their information and database to create one map, so that all sectors can make decisions together. It will enable the GL&SC to interact better with other agencies and have better information to support farmers and agricultural sectors.

The SLDM project commenced in April 2018 with the objective of promoting sustainable land use and the reclamation of degraded lands, which is essential to Guyana’s ‘Green’ State Development Strategy, the national development plan that guides the country’s ‘green’ economic and socio-cultural development over the next 15 years. The work is funded by the Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund.

Guyana enjoys a diversity of natural resources, including agricultural lands, mineral deposits and rain forests. Such endowment, however, is potentially threatened by land degradation and deforestation. Sustainable land use and management is necessary, not only for protecting soil and water resources and ecosystems within Guyana, but also for enhancing livelihoods, food security and Guyana’s capacity to combat climate change.