Remarks by UN Resident Coordinator Yeşim Oruç at the World Environment Day 2024 Green Walk and Exhibition

Mr. Omkar Lochan, Chairperson, Environmental Protection Agency Board, 

Mr. Enrique Moniz, Chairperson of the Guyana Lands and Survey Commission,  

H.E. Mauricio Mauricio Vizcaíno Crespo, Ambassador of Mexico in Guyana, 

Members of the Diplomatic Corps,

UN Colleagues,   

Media representatives, ladies and gentlemen and above all students, young people! 

What a glorious Sunday morning! This is an amazing turn out. School students, private sector, national institutions are all here, with hundreds of people marching behind creative banners and chanting “Generation Restoration” songs. 

World Environment Day is the largest global platform for environmental public outreach.  Every year the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) successfully hosts this event, which draws attention to urgent actions needed to address pressing environmental issues. Thank you Mr. Parsram, Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for inviting me, again, to celebrate another World Environment Day with you.

The global issue and the SDGs

Land sustains life on Earth. Forests, farmlands, savannahs, and mountains, provide humanity with the food, water and raw materials it needs to survive. Yet, more than 2 billion hectares of the world’s land is degraded, affecting more than 3 billion people. That is why protection and restoration of land is integral to the Sustainable Development Goals – a set of global goals that Guyana incorporates into its national planning and budgeting processes, including of course SDG 15 on protecting ecosystems, and stopping land degradation.

I was very pleased and proud to listen to the presentation on the activities of the Guyana Lands and Survey Commission - many in partnership with the United Nations, notably the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in sustainable land management. Thank you. 

Allow me to add to that my own Secretary-General’s message to all countries to go beyond their land use policies and to leverage their commitments under both the Biodiversity Convention and the Paris Climate Agreement to set out how they will halt and reverse land degradation. 

National solutions 

On the occasion of World Environment Day, our friends at the UN Environment Program (UNEP) have put forward multiple local, national solutions for land restoration – some of which are very relevant to Guyana’s context. Allow me to share some of those with you, as also a call to action for governments, businesses and even individuals to pursue: 

1. Sustainable Agriculture: Agriculture is one of the key drivers of land degradation. In Guyana, efforts are already underway to promote sustainable agriculture. For our part at the UN, I am pleased to note that FAO and IFAD support this national agenda by working with communities for climate-resilient crops while building capacity to encourage sustainable farming practices. Support is also provided by UNDP to harness indigenous knowledge to develop sustainable farming methods. There is so much more we can collectively do with the private sector, with businesses, to further food systems transformation in Guyana – and I thank the Ministry of Agriculture for spearheading its national pathways for food systems transformation in partnership with FAO and the World Food Programme (WFP). 
2. Save the soil: Soil is more than just the dirt under our feet. It is the planet’s most biodiverse habitat. Healthy soil acts as a carbon sink, locking in greenhouse gases that would otherwise enter the atmosphere, playing a vital role in climate mitigation. To keep soil healthy and productive, governments and the finance sector can support organic and soil-friendly farming. The UN System (FAO) is working with national authorities, through the Caribbean SOILCARE project, to provide crucial insights into soil characteristics, informing decisions on sustainable soil management and development.
3. Renew coastal and marine areas: There is great momentum now in Guyana for the expansion of the Protected Areas Network to include marine protected areas. There are sets of interlinked plans and activities with civil society, Ministries and others on the restoration of the country’s mangroves. UNDP and others have worked on many activities for protected areas including on coastal management plans. 

Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) 2030

All of this activity does not happen in a policy vacuum. Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) provides the national vision and policy direction. 

For example, under the LCDS, Guyana has already committed to double the coverage of national Protected Areas Network and to ultimately reach 30% coverage by 2030. This is a commendable target – one which will require herculean efforts from the Protected Areas Commission and the EPA and probably a lot more investment in their human resources and institutional capacities. 

We know already that Guyana is a leader in the world when it comes to forest management and protection. The recent National Forest Restoration Initiative is a testament in this regard.

The LCDS also squarely aligns Guyana with the global climate goals, including for diversifying and decarbonizing Guyana’s economy and investing in low-carbon opportunities. In short, the national strategic framework is in place, now increasingly being backed up by the needed partnerships and budgets for its implementation. 

Conclusion

Many countries, especially Small Island Developing States (SIDS) including Guyana, continue to need international support, financing and enabling environments to achieve such goals; goals that are set out in the LCDS for Guyana. That is why the UN Secretary General and indeed the entire UN system stands firmly behind and in solidarity with the calls of SIDS – made only last week in Antigua at the SIDS conference - for the international development partners and donors to scale up climate finance and to help build economic resilience through a much more responsive global financing architecture. 

“We are Generation Restoration. Together, let’s build a sustainable future for land, and for humanity.” 

Thank you.