Latest update March 29th, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 10, 2010 News
– Conservation International collaborates with UG and NCERD for greater inclusion of natural resource management in curricula
By Crystal Conway
The Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) is a novel concept that remains at the forefront of the current administration’s policies but having a ‘greener economy’ will do the country no good if there is no one to manage it effectively.
Conservation International (CI) is dedicated to seeing Guyana pursue a path of sustainable development where natural capital is maintained and used effectively. To this end, the organization seeks to support two tasks – maintaining (and improving) Guyana’s natural assets and building the country’s human capital.
To do the first, CI works closely with the Forestry Commission and the Ministry of Agriculture on the Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) System. According to the Director of CI, Dr. David Singh, they have done extensive work with both agencies. Conservation International has been working diligently to ensure that the natural capital which Guyana does possess is duly maintained since there needs to be a baseline from which to work when attempting to improve on that capital.
The other side of CI’s focus is that of building human capacity. Dr. Singh pointed out that the resources of his organization are somewhat limited, and as such their plan to see improvement in this area engenders taking their resources to those strategic places where they can do the most good. And what better place to pass on this information than within the education system? The organization’s collaboration with the University of Guyana and the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD) meets this end.
On September 21, Conservation International signed an agreement with the University of Guyana that will see a strengthening of the relationship between the two institutions. The cooperation agreement will see collaboration between the University and CI on a number of areas surrounding the management of natural capital. These areas include but are not limited to the integration and management of natural resources, ecosystem resources, ecosystem services and management, curriculum development and building strategic international alliances. It will see Conservation International assisting the University in both in teaching and in undertaking research, and it is expected that knowledge and people resources will flow both ways through the agreement.
According to the revised LCDS, the EVN (Economic Value to the Nation) of Guyana’s forests has a multi-billion-dollar earning potential – annually. Dr. Singh noted that this is an entire new sector, and as such it will need to be manned like any other sector of the economy. There needs to be training of persons to fill the jobs that may be created as well as reevaluations of those careers that already exist.
But it is not enough to wait until a person decides to get into a particular career for them to start learning about the needs of effectively managing the country’s resources, especially since they are of such importance to the entire country. An importance that will only increase as the natural capital elsewhere disappears, leaving patches of rich biodiversity like the Amazon and Congo Basins, which themselves are slowly shrinking as well. There is a need to educate the entire Guyanese population in the necessity of maintaining our natural wealth and the actions or lifestyles required to accomplish this end.
To this end, CI is currently collaborating with NCERD on a project to launch a set of short informational DVDs for use in secondary and primary schools with the potential for wider public distribution.
According to Mohandatt Goolsarran, Director of NCERD, the series should be completed by the end of the second school term. It will offer information on a number of areas, beginning with the basics of the earth, climate, ecosystems and other aspects of the environment. Then the series will add to that by showing relationships under topics like the natural cycles such as the water and carbon cycles. There will be a DVD or DVDs that explain climate change, offer evidence for it, and explain the proposed solutions for same, as well as the impact that the consequences of climate change could have on Guyana.
The series will also look at the country’s biodiversity and management of those biodiversity resources. Resource extraction, livelihoods gained by same, and the threats of losing their income that face these people will also be featured in the series.
Goolsarran also noted that the idea of environmental studies is not forgotten in the curricula of the secondary schools either. He said that it has been included in Integrated Science which is studied from forms one through three, while the final two years spent studying for CSEC exams sees students preparing using the relevant syllabus. He also pointed out that input from Guyanese science teachers, and through them the local authorities, is included in the planning of any syllabus by CSEC.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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