The Natural Resources and Environment Ministry has dismissed comments and articles on Guyana’s Third National Report, indicating an elevated deforestation rate, as misinterpretations.
In a release, the ministry noted that the third national report stating the deforestation rate for the year 2012, under the Monitoring Reporting and Verification (MRV) System for REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Plus Sustainable Forest Management), has been jointly produced by the Guyana Forestry Commission and Indufor, and is currently being subjected to an independent accuracy assessment conducted by the University of Durham, United Kingdom.
The report summarises change of forest to non-forest, excluding degradation between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2012, at an estimated 14,655 hectares. Over the Year Three reporting period, this equates to a total deforestation rate of 0.079 per cent. This rate of change is higher than Year Two period (15 months), which was reported as 0.054 per cent.
Recognition
Similar to that of the Year Two period, mining remains the main driver of deforestation in Year Three. Mining accounts for 92 per cent or 13,516 hectares of the total deforestation figure recorded in 2012.
However, it is important to note that mining marginally increased from the previous year from 9175 hectares to 13,516 hectares, thus resulting in a difference of 4341 hectares. Of the 4341 hectares, mining infrastructure (road construction) accounted for 1434 hectares; hence, mining activities saw an increase of only 2907 hectares.
“Considering the issues with timely accessing of Norway funds, we need to appreciate the guaranteed and increasing funds that are flowing from our mining sector every year. The positive contributions from the mining sector should not be hastily disregarded, as it contributes to approximately 11 per cent of the country’s GDP and, directly and indirectly employs roughly 30,000 people.
For the same Year Three period, the mining industry earned the government US$ 716 million in foreign exchange.
“Further, we must remain cognisant of the fact that the spatial distribution of mining activities remains very much unchanged. The maps in the report illustrate that mining is heavily concentrated in the mining belts, particularly in the north-west region of Guyana. It is important not to be misguided that the mining sector at large occurs haphazardly and in an uncontrolled manner. There is no basis for a presumption that an increase in mining activity in Guyana, leading to the observed increase in deforestation for the year 2012, is on account of widespread illegal mining activity. With the high prices of gold in 2012, supported by the associated increase in demand for permits, claims and licences, there is evidence of an increase in legal mining activities for this period,” the ministry said.
