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Seminar puts focus on bolstering forestry research
- network to be set up for Guyana and other ACP countries
By Tajeram Mohabir
IWOKRAMA International Rainforest Centre, in collaboration with Guyana
Forestry Commission (GFC), yesterday conducted a one-day seminar to
strengthen forest research priorities in the Guianas.
It was attended by representatives of several key stakeholders in the sector
and convened at Red House, High Street, Kingston, Georgetown.
Iwokrama Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr. Dane Gobin, said it was part of
a seven million euros project to establish a researching network for
African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, as well.
He said the programme seeks to bolster the networking to facilitate transfer
of results between applied research initiatives, which will contribute to
the building of effective tools to monitor sustainable development.
It would also test the criteria and indicators of sustainable forest
management under different socio-economic and ecological conditions, Gobin
disclosed.
The ACP states involved are The Cameroons, Central African Republic,
Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guyana, Suriname,
Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
Gobin said the network stations and tropical research teams will contribute
to the extension of training for EU and ACP graduate and post graduate
students.
He explained that yesterday's workshop will facilitate inter-regional
collaboration between ACP forest research organisations, by strengthening
capacities of selected structures to effectively promote and implement
common themes.
Other expected results are:
* strengthening the capacities of selected ACP forestry research structures
to document biodiversity in support of sustainable use of forest goods and
services;
* creation of appropriate training opportunities and
* improvement of capacities for inter-regional and international
collaboration with ACP and European forestry research institutions,
networking and information dissemination.
Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Robert Persaud, said the aim was, essentially,
to update the work of a National Workshop on Forestry Research held in
September 1999, by prioritising areas for forestry research.
In addition to the areas previously identified at that 1999 workshop, I
challenge you to take on board all recent developments that are occurring
locally and internationally in the sphere of forestry and other renewable
natural resources," he told the participants.
Persaud said new tropical areas present Guyana with golden opportunities to
expand on the types of services and products the local forests offer,
especially globally, when much more recognition and emphasis are
increasingly placed on the role of forests in mitigating climate change and
as a source of renewable energy.
He expressed optimism that the research priorities will, in the long run,
reinforce Guyana's call to the international community for a market-based
compensatory mechanism to reward standing rainforests for environmental
services.
The minister, whose portfolio encompasses forestry, appealed to the various
stakeholders to work together as a team and respect the roles in which they
operate.
is the only way we would be able to synergise our varied talents to maximise
our outputs and take the forestry sector forward in a constructive and
positive manner," he stated.
The GFC is tasked with the responsibility of managing the nation's State
forestry resources which total some 13.6 million hectares of tropical
rainforest and some of what is responsible for includes allocation,
harvesting, extraction, industry development and processing, marketing and
research.
However, its regulatory and revenue collection activities take priority over
research, in which University of Guyana (UG), Conservation
International(CI), Worldwide Fund for Nature (WFN) and Tropenbos-Guyana are
all partners.
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