Description

The Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GLSC), acting under the authority of the GLSC Act of1999, holds a legal and institutional mandate as the custodian of all public lands, rivers, and creeks in Guyana. Among its responsibilities are the establishment of national geographic and land information policies, the development of spatial data standards, and the maintenance of a land information system capable of supporting national development priorities. Despite a longstanding recognition of the importance of metadata in national geospatial data infrastructure, Guyana currently lacks a functional and centralized metadata system through which government agencies, researchers, planners, NGOs, and the private sector can identify, assess, and request access to available spatial datasets. GLSC, working to address these shortcomings,throughthe proposed Metadata Portal, aims to provide a centralized digital interface that enables institutions to publish structured metadata about their geospatial datasets, according to a nationally agreed-upon metadata standard. This portal will not host the datasets themselves; rather, it will act as a clearinghouse that allows stakeholders—including government agencies, civil society, academia, and the private sector—to discover what data exists, who owns it, what it covers, how it may be accessed, and under what
restrictions. This transparency will reduce duplication of data creation, improve decision-making, and strengthen the capacity of government actors to coordinate on land governance and compliance tasks