‘Preserving the Lungs of the Earth’

Contributing paragraphs on behalf of the Guyana Forestry Commission- Ria Bisnauth, Special Projects Officer, Forest Resources Management Division

OVER 18 million hectares of rainforests, lush, green tropical jungles, massive evergreen hardwood trees rising to form dense canopies, encapsulating rich biodiversity and unique, complex ecosystems, incomparably the pride of Guyana. Our high forest cover, low deforestation (HFLD) status has put us on the global radar and earned us an international platform to negotiate and set standards for sustainable development in the era of climate action. Our rainforests inspired the novel Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) of 2009, paving an alternative pathway to development. Even with the advent of oil production, our forests remain the basis of Guyana’s LCDS 2030.

In many ways, rainforests can be considered the heart of Guyana’s economy and the roots of its society. Even before the global movement for climate change mitigation and adaptation reached its apex, our approach to forests was a sustainable one – it could be argued that we were “sustainable” before sustainability blew up as a concept. This is unsurprising since core principles such as environmental protection and intergenerational equity can trace their roots
back to the caring culture of our ancestors – a culture that remains in practice among Guyana’s first peoples, as well as many generations of Guyanese of all ethnic backgrounds who have lived intertwined with forests and interdependently with healthy forest ecosystems.

This year’s theme for World Rainforest Day is “Preserving the Lungs of the Earth”, a fitting metaphor referencing the symbiotic relationship between humans and forests, where trees exhale what we inhale and vice versa. Forests are vital in supplying oxygen – our literal life’s breath. They are equally important in filtering the air by removing carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is quantitatively the most harmful of anthropogenically-produced greenhouse gases that contribute to detrimental climate change. So yes, forests are in fact, saving us from ourselves.

Yet, as we commemorate and bring new awareness to this priceless, irreplaceable service of rainforests, let us also consider the significance of the shift in language and context within the environmental movement: from preserving rainforests to conserving rainforests. The notable difference has been the inclusion of people, i.e., the concept of sustainable utilisation.

It is often misinterpreted that the movement towards environmental protection is a movement away from human development. Many factors can contribute to this notion, chief among them being the drastic pollution of the environment due to modern industrialisation and globalisation. Mass establishment of infrastructure and high demand for forest resources, including wood for construction and fossil fuels, led to immense forest clearing and a high incidence of human intrusion. Access to forests increased by the access to wildlife and exploitative recreational hunting. Effectively, conventional economic development has been accompanied by a society imbued with destructive culture – a culture of exploitation and excess which became the antithesis of the culture of subsistence and care that preceded it.

But as we visualise this, whose society and culture do we see? Is it a Guyanese one? Is it the culture of our ancestors? Does it embody our values? While Guyana, a melting pot of ethnicities and cultures, is no stranger to global ideals and standards imported with consumerism, media, and technology, the values of Guyanese people have certainly played a role in why more than 99% of our forests are still standing; forests that store 18% of the world’s forest carbon.

We have been able to historically maintain deforestation rates below 1% in the postcolonial era, where global economies have thrived on the exploitation of natural resources. We have been able to retain the status of a country with the second-highest percentage of forest cover in the world even while our people continue to extract forest resources for all scales of livelihood. And while this behaviour is guided by robust institutional mechanisms that sustainably manage forest allocation and governance, those systems themselves have built on the socioeconomic values of forests that predated them. While we have derived the average annual growth rate of timber species from academic studies, we continue to identify our tree species through traditional knowledge. Most of our tree spotters are of indigenous heritage. The people who live amongst the forests will always know its value more intrinsically, beyond timber and beyond money.

Therefore, we must recognise and acknowledge the social value of forests to Guyanese people historically and presently. It is equally important that we understand how that social value has contributed and continues to contribute to healthy, thriving forest ecosystems which are natural capital in our growing economy. Understanding that Guyanese people have been a part of forest ecosystems helps us to avoid what is known as “fortress conservation”. It helps us to understand that conserving forests does not mean excluding people and their livelihoods, but rather that we can promote sustainable utilisation that strives to balance the famed pillars of environmental, social, and economic benefits.

Guyana’s current sustainable forest management (SFM) system is driven by the philosophy and science of sustainable utilisation. The Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) has the legal mandate for approximately 12.5 M hectares of state forests in Guyana; and, therefore, is responsible for forest resource allocation and management, forest law enforcement and governance, and forest monitoring. The Forests Act 2009 and the Forest Regulations 2018 are the overarching legislative framework for forests in Guyana, while specifications for the SFM framework are detailed in Codes of Practices and Guidelines for Forest Operations.

The GFC’s mandate allows for it to support a productive forestry sector that primarily focuses on commercial timber extraction along with other non-timber forest products, within the limits of an ecologically sound, empirically informed system while also avoiding land use conflicts and accounting for crosscutting, intersectoral perspectives through a multistakeholder approach.

Guyana’s SFM framework is designed to conserve our rich tropical rainforests by implementing the following prescriptions and strategies:
✔ Setting annual quotas for the volume of timber that can be extracted per hectare;
✔ Implementing cutting cycles that stipulate equivalent resting periods for sustainably harvested forest concessions;
✔ Implementing minimum diameter limit for commercially extracted trees. A minimum of 35cm dbh is used based on this being the average diameter at which most tropical hardwoods are mature, reproductive adults;
✔ Implementing an 8-metre proximity rule so that only one of two or more reproductive trees of a species can be harvested within that area, to retain parent trees;
✔ Designating 4.5% of productive forests in any large-scale forest operation area as a biodiversity reserve, to retain an intact, natural composition of the area for reference, monitoring, and future rehabilitation if necessary;
✔ Requiring that large-scale operations conduct pre-harvest inventories, identify trees to be cut on stock maps based on GFC regulations, and submit detailed datasheets and stock maps for reference and compliance monitoring;
✔ Allocating barcode-based forest tags for all trees harvested as part of a state-of-the-art wood tracking system;
✔ Tracking wood supply chains from tree to finished products, to verify that wood products are legally and sustainably sourced. This has been recently enhanced by the finalsation and implementation of EU-FLEGT VPA;
✔ Conducting various scales of forest inventories to collect data on type and quantity of forest resources and evaluate commercial and conservation potential for more efficient utilsation and effective management;
✔ Guyana’s REDD+ Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification System (MRVS) annually measure deforestation and forest change, as well as collects forest carbon data from destructive sampling to better inform management systems and conservation efforts;
✔ The MRVS has been a key fixture in the Guyana-Norway Agreement, reporting on the maintenance of low deforestation rates and intact forest landscapes;
✔ The Forest Area Assessment (FAA) component of the MRVS uses remote sensing to identify key drivers of deforestation and hotspots of forest change; as well as to monitor any conflicting land use and illegal activity visible in satellite imagery;
✔ A massive GIS database on forest resources, activities, and status is kept by the GFC for reference, management, and monitoring; and
✔ Since forests are still a vested interest for many other sectors and agencies, the GFC is a member of many national multistakeholder and inter-agency committees and boards to deal with mutual issues and resolve conflicts.

Guyana’s SFM framework is a living one that is constantly being improved through the findings of forest inventories and research, monitoring feedback, and stakeholder engagement. A massive National Forest Inventory (NFI) has been ongoing since 2018, with field data collection expected to be completed in 2023. The hardworking field officers have persevered through Hinterland flooding and a COVID-19 pandemic to collect priceless forest resource data that is expected to revolutionise forest management in the following key areas: informed forest allocation, planning, and management; updated forest resource information databases and maps; valuation of forest resources; and zonation of forests by use potential and resource value; and effective utilisation of resources.

Finally, balancing competing and sometimes conflicting interests will always be difficult in Guyana’s rich, complex forest landscape. However, the social value of forests, while it may be hard to see in the clothes we wear, the food we eat, and how we live, remains a part of Guyanese culture. It is easy to think of climate change as a global agenda or conservation as a political move to strengthen international relations. But the core of it, the care culture and the value that inspires it, have always come from ancestors who first learned of its value during foraging and shelter construction to university students studying forestry with passion.
In addition to our valuable, sustainable forest management framework and our ambitious low-carbon pathways to development, Guyana’s rainforests will stay standing. Our lungs will continue to breathe for generations to come because we are a people who care.