Forestry Research network to be set up for ACP countries  

Georgetown, GINA, March 12, 2008

A Forestry Research Network (FORENET) will be established for the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries to facilitate links between forest research organisations of selected member countries by supporting local research organisations and enabling them to work effectively on related forest research programmes.
This was announced at a workshop held today at the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre, Main Street to discuss the forest research priorities for the Guianas.
With this network in place results from applied research initiatives will be available to all the ACP countries. This will further contribute to building effective tools to monitor sustainable development and to test criteria of sustainable forest management under the different socio economic and ecological conditions.
            The 7M Euro project, funded by the European Commission and the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) is a collaborative effort between the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) which has responsibility for forestry research in Guyana and Iwokrama, and it will be administered by CIFOR.
  The European Commission will provide 6M Euros while CIFOR will provide 1M. 
            Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud, who holds the portfolio for forestry recalled that a similar workshop was held in September 1999, in Georgetown where organisations were asked to highlight what they felt were the priority research areas.
            Minister Persaud noted that, “We are again engaged in a similar exercise which is aimed at essentially updating the work of the September workshop, by prioritizing areas for forestry research.”
He furthered challenged that the workshop, “take on board all of the recent developments that are occurring locally and internationally in the sphere of forestry and other renewable natural resources.”
            He said, “These new topical areas offer us golden opportunities to expand on the types of services and products that our forests have to offer, especially at a time when globally, much more recognition and emphasis is increasingly placed on the role of forests in mitigating climate change, and the role of forests as a source of renewable energy,” the Minister said.
The contribution of Guyana’s forests in mitigating climate change cannot be undervalued, he noted.
“ I do hope that the research priorities will, in the long run, reinforce our call internationally for a market-based compensatory mechanism to reward standing rainforests for their environmental services.”  
The Minister said that the workshop is opportune, coming at a time when all stakeholders must further ensure that policies for sustainable utilization and management of the forest resources are based on sound documented scientific evidence.
“This evidence must be of a quality that withstands the scrutiny of the extremists who do not want us to sustainably utilize our forests for improvement of poor rural livelihoods, but who on the other hand, are not prepared to compensate our people for maintaining these forests in an untouched state.”
Minister Persaud underscored the need for all non-governmental bodies that are engaged in forestry research at the national level, to ensure that they respect the role of the GFC as the authorized Government agency that is responsible for coordinating Forestry research in Guyana.

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