Area close to Surinamese & Brazilian borders to be set aside for conservation

The two million hectares of forest lands promised by Guyana at the 1994 United Nations Convention on Biodiversity for Conservation and which was recommitted at the Paris Agreement on Climate Change would be set aside.

This was reiterated by Natural Resources Minister, Raphael Trotman in response to questions regarding the availability of the lands.

“Through a combination of work to be done by the Guyana Lands and Survey Commission indeed and the Guyana Forestry Commission , we believe that more than 2 million hectares is quite available for pristine places where our biodiversity can thrive, So there is nothing that will cause a disruption to economic activity,” Trotman told reporters on Thursday at a post-cabinet press conference.

Minister Trotman said there are lands in an area known as the Fourth Parallel towards the Surinamese and Brazilian borders, which would be the first area to be preserved.

Several pledges including Guyana’s recommitment to bringing 17 percent of the state forest lands under conservation were made by President David Granger when he joined other world leaders during the inking of the historic Paris Agreement in New York back in April.

Meanwhile, touching on the area of investments, Trotman said coming out of two Investment forums, he has received several offers for investments in gold, diamonds, timber  and oil and gas.

Trotman noted that “these take time, and we are working on them as quickly as we can, I know Ministry of Business is working assiduously to bring them on stream from those two.”