OVERVIEW OF GUYANA’S REDD+ ACTIVITIES

REDD+ for the Guiana Shield, Steering Committee Launch

August 6, 2013

Initiation of REDD+ Activities

Submission of Guyana’s Readiness Plan Idea Note (RPIN) to the FCPF in March 2008- Approved in June 2008

Submission of R-PP – February, 2009, Approved by FCPF in June 2009

Went through a number of revisions – final version is December 2012 version

Entitles Guyana to US$3.8M from the FCPF over a 36 month period

Approach of the RPP will be participatory, inclusive and will integrate all levels of stakeholders

Structure of the RPP

Component 1: Organize and Consult◦ 1a. National Readiness Management Arrangements◦ 1b. Stakeholder Consultation and Participation

Component 2: Prepare the REDD + Strategy◦ 2a. Assessment of Land Use, Forest Policy and

Governance ◦ 2b. REDD + Strategy Options◦ 2c. REDD + Implementation Framework◦ 2d. Social and Environmental Impacts

Component 3: Develop a Reference Scenario Component 4: Design a Monitoring System

◦ 4a. Emissions and Removals ◦ 4b. Other Benefits and Impacts

Component 5: Schedule and Budget Component 6: Design a Programme Monitoring

and Evaluation Framework

Progress to date To date, Guyana has been subject to 4 Due

Diligence missions by the World Bank over the period 2009- 2010

In 2011 Guyana was one of five pilot countries invited to explore the use of a Delivery Partner outside of the World Bank- Guyana chose to work with the IDB.

An Agreement between the IDB & GoG to be signed in the near future. This Process is currently with the IDB.

Some resources from the R-PP will go towards indigenous NGOs & NTC led consultations as well as institutional strengthening of some of these bodies.

Guyana’s LCDSLaunched in June 2009, Guyana’s Low

Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) aims to transform Guyana’s economy while combating climate change.

1

•Avoiding Deforestation & Forest Degradation

2

•Low Carbon Development

3

•Adapting to Climate Change

Guyana - Norway Cooperation

November 2009: Guyana & Norway signed an MoU for cooperation on issues

related to the fight against Climate Change and in particular issues

concerning REDD+

The Joint Concept Note (JCN) is a componment of the MOU = action list =

operationalise the MOU

Under the MoU Guyana can earn up to US$ 250 million by 2015 as payments for performance against a number of

indicators

Will finance a number of activities, including:

(1) Implementation of LCDS, (2) Building capacity to improve

REDD+ and LCDS efforts

Institutional Arrangements for REDD+ in Guyana

Office of Climate Change - within the Office of the President to work across the Government to support policy work on climate adaptation, mitigation and forest conservation.

Guyana Forestry Commission manages and regulates the activities of the State Forest Estate to ensure that sustainable forest management rules and guidelines are implemented and that the forest legislation is implemented effectively. The GFC has been involved in the implementation of key technical areas of work of REDD+.

The REDD Secretariat, established as an operational department within the GFC, has been involved in the implementation of “REDD+ readiness” activities, including the development and implementation of the Monitoring, Reporting and Verification System (MRVS).

MRV System Roadmap A Road Map was developed, which

outlined progressive steps over a 3 year period that will build towards a full MRVS being implemented.

Undertook a capacity building approach

The first year in the Roadmap commenced in 2010 and required for a number of initial reporting activities to commence that would assist in shaping the next steps planned for 2011 and 2012.

Implementation of work under MRV The aim of the MRVS is to establish a

comprehensive, national system to monitor, report and verify forest carbon emissions resulting from deforestation and forest degradation in Guyana.

With the development of the MRVS Roadmap, implementation of works begun in 2010 in two main areas:

◦ Forest Area Change Assessment◦ Forest Carbon Monitoring System

These activities determine the historical and current patterns of emissions from Guyana’s forest, their drivers and the carbon stock present in the various pools.

Forest Area Change AssessmentGuyana has completed forest area change

assessments for the following periods:◦ 1990 to 2000◦ 2001 to 2005◦ 2006 to 2009 September ◦ 01 October, 2009 to 30 September, 2010 (Year 1)◦ 01 October, 2010 to 31 December, 2011 (Year 2)

A benchmark map was created, providing a snapshot of forest area as at 30 September 2009.

All forest to non-forest changes are mapped

spatially and reported. Work on Year 3 (2012) forest area change

assessment has commenced

Forest Area Change Assessment

For the Benchmark and Year 1 analyses, medium resolution satellite images were used to calculate the forest area, in accordance with Guyana’s national definition of forest for REDD+, as at 1990.

Forest change between 2010 and 2011, was determined using high resolution (5 m) RapidEye imagery over Year 1 change areas.

The use of 5 m RapidEye imagery is a significant improvement over Year 1, as for a large part of Guyana which accounts for most of the allocated forest area, it offers resolution at 5 m as compared to 30 m primarily used in Year 1. This allows for more refined reporting of change areas.

For the remaining areas in Year 2 assessment (areas not covered by Rapideye), Landsat TM and ETM+ were used.

Forest Area Change Assessment

Over the Year 2 reporting period, this equates to a total deforestation rate of 0.054%.

This rate of change is largely similar, and a small percentage lower than Year 1 - October 2009 to September 2011 (12 months) which was reported as 0.056%.

Significant progress was made in Year 2, in mapping forest degradation. The area of degradation as measured by direct interpretation (based on a degradation study) of the 5 m RapidEye satellite imagery is 5 460 ha.

The entire process for each FAA is subject not only to an independent accuracy assessment, but also independent third party verification.

Forest Area Change Assessment The main deforestation driver for Years 1 &

2 is mining which accounts for 94% of the deforestation.

It should be noted that the driver of mining, includes mining infrastructure.

A majority (96%) of deforestation is observed in the State Forest Area.

Additionally the temporal analysis of forest change post 1990 indicates that most of the change is clustered around existing road infrastructure and navigable rivers.

This provides a useful basis for planning an on-going monitoring programme that focuses on key hotspot areas.

Area Deforested over Period 1990- 2011

Period Years Forest Area (‘000 ha)

Change (‘000 ha)

Change (%)

Initial Forest area 1990

18 473.39

Benchmark (Sept 2009)

19.75 18 398.48

74.92 0.41%

Year 1 (Sept 2010)

1 18 388 .19

10.28 0.06%

Year 2 (Oct 2012 to Dec 2011

1.25 18 378. 30

9.88 0.05%

Forest Area Change by Period & Driver from 1990- 2011

Historical & Year 2 Forest Change

Mining: Spatial & Temporal Distribution for Years 1 & 2

Forestry: Spatial & Temporal Distribution for Years 1 & 2

Infrastructure: Roads Year 2

Agriculture: Spatial & Temporal Distribution for Years 1 & 2

Biomass Burning: Spatial & Temporal Distribution for Years 1 & 2

Forest Carbon Monitoring System (FCMS)

Aim is to design and implement a long-term, robust, and scientifically sound national forest carbon measurement and monitoring system (FCMS)

Data generated from C stock work will be linked to the forest area assessment effort to provide historic emissions (RL) and estimates of annual carbon emissions and removals (MRV)

Stratification for Monitoring of CarbonBased on preliminary carbon sampling data, the forest

types identified in Guyana’s forest vegetation map did not appear to have different carbon stocks.

Analyses showed similar carbon stocks per forest type. Therefore, only stratification by anthropogenic factors was included in the final forest carbon sampling stratification methodology.

A large portion of Guyana’s forest is not easily accessible and one of the goals in the design of the sampling stratification is to overcome some operational constraints, while maintaining the robust sampling results. Therefore, the factor of accessibility was also introduced in the sampling stratification methodology.

The final forest carbon sampling design stratifies the forests in Guyana by potential for change (high, medium and low) and by accessibility (more and less accessible).

Approach to Sampling Guyana is implementing a three-phased

approach for implementation of data collection as follows:

The FIRST phase of data collection includes high potential for change in more and less accessible strata.

The SECOND phase includes medium potential for change in more and less accessible strata.

The THIRD phase includes low potential for change in more and less accessible strata.

Develop sampling designUse a stratified two-stage clustered sampling

designFrom existing data and preliminary

measurements determine variation in C stocks of strata and estimate number of sample plots to achieve desired precision (90% confidence ±10% of the mean is common

Decide on number of plots ( 4 in this case in a “L” shape) in a cluster per strata

Randomly select number of grids per strata (primary sample units) based on number of clusters

Use temporary plots

Forest Potential for Change Map

Forest Carbon Sample Design for 2013

Sampling Design

• Randomly select number of grids in which to install plot clusters by high threat strata based on targeted precision (+/-10% mean)

• Takes into account accessible versus less accessible forests in sampling design

• Repeat process for medium and low threat in phased approach

Forest areas under high threat overlain with 10 km X 10 km grid

Preliminary Data Single Plots

Cluster Plots

Carbon Pool Carbon Stock (t C ha-1) % of TotalAboveground tree biomass 192.9 ± 29.9 71.2Belowground tree biomass 45.2± 7.0 17.2Saplings* 7.0 ± 1.3 2.7Dead wood (standing)# 1.1 ± 1.0 0.4Dead wood (lying)# 17.3 ± 7.1 6.6Total 279.3 ± 25.2 100

Carbon Pool Carbon Stock (t C ha-1) % of TotalAboveground tree biomass 190.6 ± 12.88 72.4Belowground tree biomass 44.8± 3.0 17.0Saplings* 5.2 ± 0.6 2.0Dead wood (standing)# 3.3 ± 1.4 1.3Dead wood (lying)# 19.3 ± 3.1 7.3Total 263.2 ± 9.3 100

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Expectations of the Project

Strengthened regional collaborationTechnical exchanges among Guiana

Shield countries on REDD+ and MRVSAssistance in obtaining satellite imagery

such as SPOT 5 (10 m resolution) or other high resolution imagery

Building of local technical capacities Synergies in methodologies in forest area

change assessment and forest carbon assessment across the region.

Thank you!