NBIS to map what lies beneath Guyana’s forests, keep data in local hands – EPA
Guyana’s National Biodiversity Information System (NBIS) will function beyond satellite views of the forest. It will record the species and ecosystems beneath the canopy, and the country will own every piece of that data.
Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Kemraj Parsram, made the point during the final panel discussion of the second Global Biodiversity Alliance (GBA) Conference at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) in Liliendaal on Saturday.
He explained that the forest monitoring system already tracks Guyana’s forests from above. The NBIS will capture the diversity within them, across the highlands, savannahs, rainforests, wetlands, mangroves and ocean.
The system will draw on years of existing research by Iwokrama, the Field Museum, Map of Life and other partners. It will also add continuous monitoring. That data will support Guyana’s reporting to the Convention on Biological Diversity, decisions on biodiversity financing, and the expansion of monitoring from carbon to biodiversity.
“The most important thing, though, is that this data, this information, is ours,” he said.
The NBIS stems from a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Government of Guyana and the Yale Centre for Biodiversity and Global Change. It was signed at the inaugural GBA Summit at the ACCC in July 2025.
The agreement gives Guyana access to the E O Wilson Biodiversity Foundation, Map of Life and the Group on Earth Observations community. It supports Guyana’s goal of protecting 30 per cent of its land and marine ecosystems by 2030.
Partnerships have since widened to the Field Museum, CIFOR and others. Managing Director of the Yale Centre, Dr Alex Killion, told the panel that Iwokrama, where rangers have collected biodiversity data for decades, is the first site in the system.
Parsram noted that each agency, including the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC), will stay in control of its own data. The NBIS will bring those datasets together to give a fuller national picture. He said the aim is not conservation for its own sake.
“Why are we protecting this? It’s not just to protect it, but it’s to ensure that our people benefit,” Parsram said, pointing to biodiversity credits and financing.
Parsram also laid out the long-term vision. Satellite imagery, acoustic monitors and sensors would feed real-time environmental data into a digital model of Guyana’s ecosystems. The EPA already operates water and air quality sensors.
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