Guyana to work with FAO on sustainable land project

Trevor Benn (right), Commissioner of Guyana Lands and Surveys in a symbolic handshake with Dr. John Ronald Ford, Sub-regional Coordinator, FAO Sub-regional Office for the Caribbean. (Ministry of the Presidency photo)

The Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GL&SC) will be partnering with the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) on a sustainable land project.

Trevor Benn (right), Commissioner of Guyana Lands and Surveys in a symbolic handshake with Dr. John Ronald Ford, Sub-regional Coordinator, FAO Sub-regional Office for the Caribbean. (Ministry of the Presidency photo)
Trevor Benn (right), Commissioner of Guyana Lands and Surveys in a symbolic handshake with Dr. John Ronald Ford, Sub-regional Coordinator, FAO Sub-regional Office for the Caribbean. (Ministry of the Presidency photo)

A release from the Ministry of the Presidency yesterday said that the proposed project is expected to take effect in January 2017.

The project will be funded through the Guyana REDD+ Invest-ment Fund (GRIF)  in line with the Low Carbon Development Strategy. The GRIF funds come from Guyana’s forest partnership agreement with Norway.

The release said that the partnership was the outcome of a meeting, which was held on Friday at the GL&SC between Commissioner of the agency, Trevor Benn and FAO representatives.

The proposed project, among other things, is intended to promote good environmental stewardship in a green economy, strengthen monitoring and enforcement capacity and ensure compliance with sustainable land management practices.

The release said that it is also expected to increase land reclamation of degraded public lands and reduce degraded areas in relation to total land area.

The FAO team comprised Dr. John Ronald Ford, Sub-regional Coordinator, FAO Sub-regional Office for the Caribbean, Dr. Lystra Fletcher-Paul, Deputy FAO Coordinator/ Administrative and Technical Capacity – Land and Water Divisions;  Reuben Hamilton Robertson, Guyana Country Represen-tative of the FAO and  Angela Alleyne, Assistant FAO Representative for Guyana. Also present at the discussion was  Marlon Bristol, Moni-toring and Evaluation Specialist and Head of the Project Management Office, Ministry of the Presidency.