PRESS RELEASE
GEORGETOWN, Guyana – The University of Guyana’s Faculty of Earth and Environmental Sciences (FEES) is assisting to enhance the capacity of the Guyana Mining School and Training Centre Inc., with a view of making the school more effective in preparing persons to mine gold in a sustainable, compliant and more efficient way.
To this end, the Guyana Mining School and Training Centre Inc. Consultancy Project held a one-day workshop to engage the various stakeholders concerned with the gold mining sector and its environmental impacts.
The initiative stemmed from a collaboration between the Government of Guyana, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to implement the ‘Enhancing Biodiversity Protection through Strengthened Monitoring, Enforcement and Uptake of Environmental Regulations in Guyana’s Gold Mining Sector’ Project.
The aim of the workshop was to create an awareness of the current situation with regards to the Guyana Mining School and Training Centre Inc., and to present a reorganised structure; to present the findings of a curriculum audit that had been undertaken by the FEES and to present recommendations as well as to provide a forum that facilitates stakeholders’ feedback on the Mining School’s current situation and on the curriculum audit.
Among the stakeholders present were officials of the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA), the Guyana Women Miners Organisation (GWMO), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Protected Areas Commission (PAC), World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Guyana and Conservation International (CI) Guyana.
It has been found that in gold mining there is inadequate management of tailings, little rehabilitation of mined-out areas and various other practices posing increased threats to the extremely high levels of biodiversity endemic to Guyana. Cited as barriers hampering the mainstreaming of biodiversity in the gold mining sector were; non-compliance with mining related environmental regulations and illegal mining, insufficient personnel and capacity to implement regulations and codes of practice.
Against this backdrop, the Ministry of Natural Resources has committed to strengthening the enabling environment for monitoring and enforcement of mining related regulations and codes of practice and the reorganisation of the Guyana Mining School and Training Centre was viewed as a good place at which to start the process.
By the end of the workshop, stakeholders agreed to examine the GGMC Act as it relates to provision of training opportunities, consider self-financing for the Guyana Mining School and Training Centre Inc. and look at a revised organisational structure for the said Mining School.
February 3, 2017
