Iwokrama
Editorial
Stabroek News
November 27, 2003
The official opening last Saturday of the 154 metre long Iwokrama Canopy Walkway, consisting of four aluminium platforms and five suspension bridges, the first of its kind in the Caribbean and the Guiana Shield, is a welcome development in this project which started with an offer to provide land for scientific research by President Hoyte at the Common-wealth Heads of Government meeting in Malaysia in 1989.
The Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development, now managed by acting Director General Dr Graham Watkins, has found it increasingly difficult to attract donor funds and has been trying to earn money by attracting tourists. It has been hard pressed financially for some time and has taken economy measures. The walkway was built with funds from the Canadian International Development Agency and from a Canadian company and will be managed by a consortium comprised of the indigenous communities of Surama in the North Rupununi and Rockview Lodge of Annai also in the North Rupununi, tour operator Wilderness Explorers and the Centre itself. The walkway will be an attraction for both tourists and researchers.
The Centre's mission is to promote the conservation and the sustainable and equitable use of tropical rainforests in a manner that leads to lasting ecological, economic and social benefits for Guyanese and the world by undertaking research, training, and the development and dissemination of technologies. In his foreword to the Summary Report for 1998-2002 Dr Watkins set the scene:
"The Iwokrama Forest and Rupununi in central Guyana encompass key landscape features of tropical South America. The Iwokrana Forest covers 371,000 hectares of pristine greenheart, wallaba and seasonally flooded palm and Mora forests. The neighbouring Rupununi is part of the broader human exosystem and includes a seasonally flooded savannah and over 200 oxbow and depression lakes distributed along the Rupununi, Essequibo and Rewa Rivers.
The Iwokrama human ecosystem is home to more than 500 species of birds, 200 mammals, 150 reptiles and amphibians and countless invertebrates. Interestingly, the Iwokrama Forest is habitat for more than 400 species of fish; extremely high diversity especially when one considers only a small portion of the total water area has been sampled. The area is also home to endangered species including Black Caiman, Giant Otters, Jaguars, Giant Anteaters and Harpy Eagles.
The whole area is part of the homeland of the Makushi people who historically used the area for harvesting forest products including wildlife. Today, local communities depend on the Iwokrama Forest for subsistence hunting, fishing and farming.
This extraordinary site is part of the Guiana Shield Frontier Forest, one of the four remaining extensive pristine forested areas left in the world (the Amazon, Congo, and Papua New Guinea are the other three). The Guiana Shield Forests are set in a complex social, economic and cultural environment with inhabitants that are among the poorest people in the world. The area is characterised by weak national and local community institutions, and dispersed small scale gold mining, chainsaw logging, and wildlife trading. The Guiana Shield, The Amazon, the Congo, and Papau New Guinea represent the last chance for humanity to demonstrate that we can effectively manage tropical rain forests."
Over the years there have been many achievements by the Centre. These include preparing the ground for developing sustained forest businesses including agreements on intellectual property rights, developing collaborative arrangements with local communities, building partnerships with local agencies for natural resource management, documenting the diversity and natural history of wildlife, raising funds (US $15 million from 1992 to 2002), establishing a natural products screening laboratory at the University of Guyana, organising technical workshops and seminars and training 24 forest rangers.
It is good that Dr Watkins, the government, donors and others have fought to keep this project alive. One can't help feeling that there are untapped possibilities for tourist development, both local and foreign. The walkway will help and the road there is now good throughout and can be traversed by ordinary vehicles. The trip takes about five hours. There are also clearly considerable possibilities for scientific research and sustainable development. If the project is kept going its time will come.