Forestry officers are trained to effectively respond to instances of wildfires within the country’s vast forest and in cases where deemed necessary, the army can be deployed in order to provide backup to any given firefighting efforts.
This position was made known by Commissioner of the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) Edward Goberdhan during an interview with this publication.
Guyana had on Tuesday detected a wildfire that destroyed just under five acres of forest in Bissaruni, Kwakwani, Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
The situation has since been brought under control but with the prolonged period of drought forecasted to last until the first quarter of 2024, the possibility of another wildfire within the country’s valuable forest exists.
Wildfires are increasing around the globe in frequency, severity and duration, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has noted. “The risk of wildfires grows in extremely dry conditions, such as drought, heat waves and during high winds,” the WHO said.
Guyana’s forests are part of the Guyana Shield, which is inclusive of areas in Suriname, French Guiana, Colombia, and Brazil. It covers approximately 270 million hectares of pristine rainforest and is recognised as one of the last remaining “frontier forests” of the world. Guyana’s contribution to this is approximately 18 million hectares or 87% of the land mass of Guyana.
The management of the forests is outlined in Guyana’s revised Low Carbon Development Strategy which saw the country becoming the first to receive a certification of over 33 million carbon credits by the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) on December 1, 2022.
Guyana has signed a US$750 million deal with Hess Corporation for the sale of carbon credits, with 15% of that money going directly to Indigenous communities.
The Guyana Government has also received a four-year €5M grant (approximately GY$1.1B) from the European Union (EU) for the sustainability of the country’s forests and forest-dependent communities.
While Guyana’s forests store approximately 90.5 gigatons of carbon, globally, trees and soil store in excess of 13 billion tonnes of carbon.
President Dr Irfaan Ali is urging persons to promptly report instances of wildfires within the country’s valuable forests.
In any worst-case scenario, Goberdhan is optimistic that local officials are prepared to respond.
“Our first response would be, our forest officers are our first respondents. We equip them with the necessary tools to go out and gather help from nearby communities. People who live close by or we would inform the Fire Service in those locations.”
“And if it escalates to higher stage then we would get like the army and so involved. But our forest officers are our first respondents and we have forest stations across the country. In every region,” Goberdhan explained.
