$35M GLSC building commissioned in Black Bush Polder

The spanking new Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GLSC) office which was constructed at Black Bush Polder, Berbice, to the tune of 35 million, was officially commissioned on Tuesday.
The building is a part of the Commission’s Sustainable Land Development and Management Project (SLDM). The new building is equipped with land administration, surveying, information and communication technology departments.
This new GLSC Office will cater to the increasing demand for decentralised land administration services in the region.
The construction of the new building was funded by the Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund (GRIF) and implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Commission, Enrique Monize explained, “We are going to be hooking this office up to the national system we have in Georgetown, it is going to be computerised and interconnected.”
The CEO further stated, “Over the years a lot of issues developed – a few hundred of them, in terms of land matters. So, we realised the need to improve the Black Bush office; we cannot wish these problems away. So by upgrading and putting systems in place, we hope that we will reduce the amount of complaints in terms of land issues. I don’t think land complaints will ever go away.”
However, Regional Chairman David Armogan noted that as a result of the infrastructural work taking place in the region, more land is becoming available for agricultural purposes.
“With the opening up of 15,000 acres just imagine the number of applications that you will get coming in with all these developments taking place, and so the office will become busier.”

Armogan reminded of the discomforts and inconveniences faced by residents in the region when seeking out services from the Lands and Survey Commission.
In this regard, he spoke of the benefits this new building will bring.
“We have to recognise that the entire economy of this region revolved aground agriculture and therefore the land is of extreme importance to this region. Without land, there can be no agriculture. For too long the people in Black Bush Polder have had to visit a building which was not conducive for discussions, which was not conducive to doing business and I suspect that the staff would have been inconvenienced to be working in a building like what we had before.”
Adding to the new infrastructure is technical and capacity development for staff as several of them benefited from scholarship programmes as well as technical training to meet the technological advancement introduced to better manage and develop lands in Guyana.
Meanwhile, speaking on behalf of the FAO Country Representative, Dr Gillian Smith; Chief Technical Advisor, Dr Alan Roberto Gonzalez reiterated that the project is funded by the Guyana REDD+ and Investment Fund (GRIF) and it is implemented by the FAO and GLSC.

The SLDM Project focuses on advancing technology, systems, and skills to improve land-use management, monitoring, and environmental restoration which will contribute to mitigating deforestation and help Guyana to maintain or increase in the long term, its carbon credit earnings while meeting our national reporting commitment on Land Monitoring and Degradation to the UNCCD.
Dr Gonzalez added that the FAO is pleased to be a part of the process to strengthen GLSC’s operations in Black Bush Polder.
The new building and facilities also include upgraded software that is in keeping with the overall technological advancement of land management that the SLDM project is undertaking.