Guyana vows to save more forests to comply with int’l pacts
GEORGETOWN, Guyana – Guyana has vowed to safeguard 2 million hectares (4.9 million acres) of forested land so it can comply with international conservation pacts.
Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman says a Cabinet decision to preserve forests will ensure that Guyana complies with the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity and conserve 17 per cent of its land by 2020.
Trotman said Monday that 8.3 per cent of Guyana’s land is conserved now. Another 2 million hectares would bring the percentage of protected land to 17 per cent.
It isn’t clear when the land will officially be safeguarded or how rules against deforestation will be enforced.
Norway in 2009 promised to give Guyana a $250 million grant to encourage it to protect its rainforests.
Guyana lost $20 million of that funding because of increased deforestation in 2012.
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