“I Regional Encounter of ACTO Member Countries Observatory​ Rooms” Guyana´s Overview Georgetown, Guyana (March 21st – 22nd )

Country Profile The total land area for Guyana is 21.1 million hectares (ha). The 460 km coastline faces the Atlantic on the northern part of the South American continent. The coastal plain is only about 16 km. wide. As at September 2009 Guyana has approximately 87% of its land area covered by forests, approximately 18.5 million ha. Total population: 756……… Guyana’s total land area approximates 21.1 million hectares Forest cover estimates account for approximately 87% or 18.5 million hectares (2009 benchmark)

Low Carbon Development Strategy and MRVS Brief Policy context

Policy Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) has expressed Guyana’s commitment to providing a model on how to address deforestation and forest degradation. LCDS – is built on framework for REDD+ Under the World Bank Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, Guyana submitted a RPP. One of the main outputs of the RPP is the development of the MRVS The Government of Guyana aims to protect and maintain the forests in an effort to reduce global carbon emissions and at the same time attract resources to foster growth and development along a low carbon path. Historically, relatively low deforestation rates of between 0.1% to 0.3%, have been reported for Guyana; in its Interim Measures MRVS Report, as ranging between 0.02% and 0.056% per annum. The Readiness Proposal Plan is one component of the LCDS.

Readiness Preparation and MRVS The objective of the Monitoring system is to provide annual, accurate estimates of changes in forest cover and degradation with national coverage by a transparent, objective and verifiable methodology. The Reporting system provides comparisons between monitoring system output summaries and the reference scenario to provide net changes in carbon for REDD+ accounting. The Verification system requires that all procedures and data sources are objective, well-documented, secure and verifiable, and are subject to such peer-review and external audit as may be determined necessary. (notes: the objective of the monitoring system is to provide….) Monitoring System: accurate forest cover change estimates (annually) (notes:- based on comparisons between outputs from monitoring the reporting system seeks to make account for…) Reporting System: net changes in carbon for REDD+ Verification System: subjects methodologies and data to integrity checks if necessary (notes:- via peer-review and external audits) The Roadmap for Guyana’s MRVS was developed through a multi-stakeholder consultative process involving a wide cross section of stakeholders. This was facilitated through two initial workshops held in September and October 2009. Verification- based on agreements set in our JCN with Norway.

National forest monitoring system STATUS National forest monitoring system

Area of Interest for Guyana´s MRVS Area approx: 121,500 km2 AOI includes Amazon and other Biomes

Activities Completed Consolidation process of existing data and establishment of data archive. Capacity building workshops and development of framework. Historic mapping of deforestation from 1990 – Sept. 2009. The associated timeline of the MRVS Roadmap Phase 1: 2010/11, Phase 2:2011/12 for and post 2012/13 for the implementation phase. Reporting on first and second phases are completed. Accuracy assessment and independent third party verification of forest maps and change estimates. Guyana is currently in its second year of executing forest change assessment, under the “Reduction of Emission from Forest Degradation and Deforestation” (REDD+) initiative. Deforestation, degradation and carbon stock estimations/reforestation are all necessary in developing and implementing the requisites of the REDD initiative. This timing reflects the current planning and may be accelerated if desired and based on lessons learned and progress made, as well as development in the international negotiation arena.

Forest Area Assessment Full historic assessment for the period 1990 to September 30, 2009. First annual assessment completed for the period 1st October, 2009 – 30th September, 2010 Second annual assessment covering 1st October 2010 to 31st December 2011 Changes in forest cover due to degradation are not required to be reported in the interim period but a framework was developed for annual reporting. A full historic assessment was also completed by different drivers and activities causing deforestation, and this covered the period 1990 to September 30, 2010. 1990 forest area was determined using medium resolution satellite images (Landsat) by excluding non-forest areas (including existing infrastructure) as at 1990.  From this point forward accounting for forest to non-forest land use change that have occurred between 1990 and 2010 using a temporal series of satellite data. YEAR 1: For the Benchmark and Year 1 analyses, medium resolution satellite images were used to calculate the forest area. YEAR 2: Forest change between 2010 and 2011, was determined using high resolution (5 m) RapidEye imagery over Year 1 change areas.

Forest Change Areas by Period and Driver from 1990 -2011 Year 1 and Year 2 period. Interpretation of the change areas during the benchmark period identifies mining (which includes mining infrastructure) as the leading contributor of deforestation (60% of the total), particularly between 2001 and 2005. Guyana's MRVS Interim Measures Report - Year 2

Historical and Year 2 Forest Change Degradation associated with deforestation caused by new, Year 2 infrastructure is estimated at 5 467 ha. This figure is substantially lower than the previous year 1 estimate of 92 413 ha. In the year 1 assessment it was not possible to reliably measure degradation from Landsat type imagery (30 m) due to the resolution of the imagery, and the scale of degradation events.

Representatives from Guyana was afforded the opportunity to benefit from training on the use of the Terra Amazon software. It is a new, affordable, and a relevant geo-processing analysis software that presents great potential for various Forest base analysis Its project applications includes: PRODES, DETER, DETEX DEGRADE projects TA seeks to achieve similar objectives as the software platform currently used in Guyana. Guyana has benefited from the tA training, but while we do not utilise the software it INPE has fashioned an impressive system and the GFC is grateful to be a part of the process. Use of Terra amazon

The Guyana Context Technologies currently utilized for the second year of reporting include: ENVI 4.7; ARCGIS 10.0 and Addressed the need for capacity building within ACTO member states. THREE representatives from the GFC was trained with TERRA AMAZON and their skill will be utilized to move the process forward The software (ENVI 4.7) utilized by Guyana, has similar functionalities to the Terra Amazon software. The ENVI 4.7 is an image processing software developed by ITTVIS and is the main software used by the Guyana Forestry Commission to process Remote Sensing Data (Satellite imagery, image Classification, etc...).

Lessons Learned Moving ahead in absence of full capacity, adequate financing and historical data. Improving systems for Multiuser Editing e.g. TERRA AMAZON Improving systems for batch processing e.g. TERRA AMAZON Future adaption of a DETER/DETEX real time analysis systems. TerraAmazon has a proven success record in Brazil. However, Guyana is well underway currently employing methodologies of our own.

Future plans

Next Steps Community MRVS Inauguration of Guyana´s Observation Room Initiation of special studies on specific areas as measurement of emissions from key drivers of deforestation & forest degradation Continue work on Tier 2 monitoring at the national level, Build capacity at all levels in managing REDD+ activities Target areas are forestry, mining area and Community MRVS It is envisaged that the reference measure as well as the interim performance indicators will only apply while the MRVS is being developed and will be replaced by a full forest carbon accounting system in the future. Community MRVS Activities have commenced on the community aspect of the Demonstration Activities by the GoG in collaboration with local and international partners

Thank You However, the deficiency of man-power and infrastructure is preventing such at the moment. We want to be able to monitor tree removal, but selective harvesting by 10 m squares poses a problem for identification.