The Guyana Forestry Commission, in collaboration with the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) under the EU Forest Law Enforcement, Governance, and Trade Voluntary Partnership Agreement (FLEGT VPA) Programme and the development teams from Pepps Engineering and BF Consult, pilot tested Guyana’s new Digital Wood Tracking System (dWTS) on Tuesday, October 27, in Linden.
The session brought together selected pilot users from across the forestry sector for a full day of hands-on, field-based testing.
EU Ambassador to Guyana, Luca Pierantoni, welcomed the pilot testing by saying “this marks a pivotal moment for Guyana’s forestry sector. By embracing digital technology, Guyana is moving towards a more robust, efficient, and reliable system for verifying timber legality. The EU, through our support for the FLEGT Programme, fully endorses this initiative, which strengthens sustainable forest management and ensures Guyanese timber products can continue to meet high international standards.”
In an invited comment, the Minister of Natural Resources, Hon. Vickram Bharrat stated “this pilot testing activity is another step taken by the Guyana Forestry Commission that demonstrates Guyana’s commitment to sustainable forest management and increasing the transparency and credibility of the forest sector. These activities align with the LCDS 2030 vision and support sustainable forest management, good governance, improves coordination and build government and stakeholder capacity.”
Developed using an agile, iterative methodology, the dWTS integrates web and mobile platforms to enable real-time traceability of timber from forest to export, even in areas with limited internet connectivity. By digitising the current paper-based processes, the system will strengthen legality verification and operational efficiency within Guyana’s forestry sector.
During the pilot, participants, including representatives from forest concessionaires, sawmills, Amerindian villages, and GFC forest stations, engaged in real-life, role-playing simulations of forest operations, transportation, and verification scenarios using the prototype dWTS applications. These immersive tests were designed to collect first-hand user feedback on system usability, data flow, and field functionality ahead of its nationwide deployment.
The event marked a key milestone in Guyana’s journey toward a fully digital, transparent, and efficient national dWTS, forming a central component of the Guyana Timber Legality Assurance System (GTLAS). The GTLAS verifies that timber products are legal at every stage of the supply chain, from the forest or point of origin to the final export to markets such as the EU.
Insights collected from the Linden pilot will guide Pepps Engineering and BF Consult in refining the platform before further regional testing and national roll-out, scheduled for completion by the end of 2026.
This milestone reaffirms Guyana’s continued commitment to sustainable forest management, improved forest governance, and alignment with international market requirementsunder the Guyana-EU FLEGT VPA and the EU Regulation on Deforestation-free Products (EUDR) frameworks.