Guyana to Fully Implement New National Biodiversity Monitoring System

GEORGETOWN, Guyana – Guyana will become the first country in the world to implement a fully standardized, border-to-border national biodiversity monitoring system by 2030, President Irfaan Ali has said.

Ambassador André Corrêa do LagoAddressing the closing ceremony of the Global Biodiversity Alliance Summit, Ali said that the National Biodiversity Information System (NBIS), launched at the summit, will collect and analyze data on the country’s plants, animals, and ecosystems and help guide decisions and policies that support sustainable development and conservation.

He said that the initiative shows Guyana’s commitment to protecting the environment and will create a new global standard for biodiversity accountability at the national level.

“Guyana is taking a bold step in being the first globally to adopt such a system, the development of the National Biodiversity Information System to serve as a digital backbone for conservation finance and policy.”

The NBIS positions Guyana as a global leader in biodiversity stewardship and will serve as a roadmap to meet the 30×30 biodiversity goal , protecting 30 per cent of land and sea by the year 2030

This is just one of the many outcomes from the GBA summit that ended here on Friday, which will bring practical solutions to address biodiversity loss.

“You now have before you a practical path to halt biodiversity loss and finance a nature-positive future. This summit marked not just admiration, but a turning point for our planet,” Ali told the closing ceremony.

He said that this robust digital infrastructure will unify biodiversity data collection, analysis, and decision-making across Guyana. The strategy will be developed and led by an interagency coalition of government, local and indigenous peoples, academic institutions, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), building on decades of Guyanese-led conservation.

“We’re also hoping that we can have our own museum, because we have enough history and enough of an ecosystem to support such a museum and the development of an intensive park to showcase the richness of our biodiversity,” President Ali said, calling on wealthier countries  and private companies to step up and provide more funding to support countries like Guyana that are taking action.

Ali also welcomed the launch of a new fund, Tropical Forest Forever (TFF), at the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belém, Brazil, aimed at helping countries preserve their forests with long-term support.

“To this end, we support the expansion of high-integrity markets for jurisdictional approaches, and we also encourage potential investor countries to announce ambitious contributions to TFF. Further, we call on international organizations, NGOs and civil society to support the TFF worldwide.”

Meanwhile, the President of COP30, Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago, is supporting Guyana’s push to put biodiversity conservation at the center of next year’s global climate talks, urging the world to “act as quickly as possible” to halt the accelerating loss of nature.

He described the inaugural summit as a critical platform to ensure that biodiversity takes its rightful place alongside climate action at the COP 30.

He recalled how the historical 1992 Rio Conventions emerged at a time when there was limited knowledge and scientific uncertainty, saying that despite scientific agreement on issues like biodiversity, climate, and desertification, negative changes are happening more quickly than anticipated.

“We have to do everything possible; as quickly as possible, and this initiative (GBA Summit) that we see here today is extremely important,“ the ambassador said, adding that the biodiversity crisis requires more than the engagement of central governments.

The COP30 president said it is imperative to involve the broader society, including civil society, subnational governments, academia, and the private sector in this fight. This broader inclusivity is key to the Action Agenda, which started during COP21 in Paris, France, and gained momentum at COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland.

Ambassador Corrêa do Lago said that multilateral cooperation is the only viable path forward. Forest-rich countries, especially tropical nations, must speak with one voice to prevent being manipulated or sidelined in global negotiations.

“We have to work together to agree that there are solutions and we need to have a common way of seeing how to deal with the forest, or we’re going to be strongly manipulated, and we definitely know that we can avoid that,” he added.