EXISTING for more than 25 years, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) remains committed to supporting Guyana’s sustainability efforts and continues to fight to protect our biodiversity.
The EPA’s Executive Director, Kemraj Parsram, in a recent episode of the ‘United for Biodiversity- the Alliance’ podcast said that in addition to the fact that 85 per cent of Guyana’s land is forested and intact, we have a continuum of ecosystems.
He said from the marine environment to coastal mangroves, wetlands, lakes, conservancies, lowland forests and our savannahs, Guyana has several ecosystems still intact, with species that only belong in this geographic scope.
“We have maintained that value and that importance for livelihoods for Indigenous populations, and for us all,” Parsram said, “All the things that we do, from our agriculture to our forestry, depend on these ecosystems and biodiversity as well. Maybe people think biodiversity is just animals or plants, but biodiversity is a variety of life.”
The EPA Head went on to say that Guyana can be viewed as a “living museum of evolutionary history”. He mentioned that recently, there have been people studying this area, with the likelihood of new species being discovered.
He noted that importantly, Guyana is a refuge for endangered species. This includes our jaguars, manatees, and our turtles.
Parsram added that we have been protecting our forests, leveraging the economic aspect of our resources. He explained that in Guyana, because of our protected species, we have value that could be converted into biodiversity credit units, and then marketed globally, creating another form of income for Guyanese as a whole.
“The EPA is the focal point for the Convention on Biological Diversity. And so, there’s a Convention on Biological Diversity that speaks to three things. It speaks to conservation of biodiversity, sustainable use, and equitable benefit sharing of these resources,” Parsram posited.
Since its existence, Parsram said the EPA has been working and coordinating to ensure this happens.
According to the senior official, “We have our environmental authorization process. So, all development activities throughout the last 29 years, we’ve been sure that they are adequately permitted, the effects on the environment are assessed, and we set safeguards in place. So, we basically help in protecting the degradation of our resources. And hence, how our biodiversity is still world class as it is today.”
In December of 2022, the Global Biodiversity Framework, which saw 196 countries coming out and committing to 23 targets, recognised that globally, there was decline in biodiversity.
Parsram stated that these countries started committing to these efforts to expand their protected areas, improve its management, and look at financing for biodiversity. The EPA was part of that negotiation.
With the Global Biodiversity Alliance Summit days away, Parsram said this alliance and the event is “much needed”.
Commending President Dr. Irfaan Ali on this, Parsram underscored that coming out of this summit, he hopes to see how we can encourage the globe and get a partnership to deal with the expansion of our protected areas to meet the 30 by 30 goals, and importantly, the contribution to biodiversity finance.
“We are at a good state in Guyana in that we are leveraging our oil economy to strengthen our non-oil economy, but also investing in conservation; and then looking as well at other innovative means of bringing financing to support maintaining and conserving our biodiversity. So, this alliance, if those things are done, I think it will be very successful, and those are the three things I think this alliance, this summit will be important to,” he expressed.
Guyana is set to host the Global Biodiversity Alliance Summit in Georgetown from July 23 to 25, 2025. The summit will bring together world leaders, experts, stakeholders, and local communities to strengthen global efforts to conserve and restore biodiversity.