Iwokrama is now poised to become an experimental business centre with its various stakeholder partners to prepare communities for the challenges and opportunities of forest-based business and natural resource management, Director General of the Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation, Dr Katryn Monk, said.

In an address at the opening of a three-day Conference on `Public Policy, Natural Equity: Development as if Equity Mattered' at Le Meridien Pegasus yesterday, Dr Monk said that Iwokrama has for the past four years been experimenting with approaches and methods to produce the best type of models for socially responsible development within an environmentally sustainable framework and has met with some measure of success.

At present, Dr Monk said "providing training and capacity development to ready communities for the challenges and opportunities of forest-based business and natural resource management is the cornerstone of Iwokrama's community-based work."

The objective, she said, was for the communities to become equal partners in the national development process and for Iwokrama to provide some of the support that could lay the basis for this goal in conjunction with these communities themselves.

Iwokrama's forests, she said, could not survive in isolation adding that much research has emphasised the linkages between the forest itself and the seasonally flooded savannahs. And development could not take place unless all stakeholders recognised their responsibilities as well as their rights. "It is a complex situation and a big challenge," she said.

Speaking on the subject `Iwokrama: Progress and Priorities for Sustainable Human Development' Dr Monk said that Iwokrama had had much success in deepening collaboration with local communities and national institutions and applying ecological and social knowledge in forest zoning and management planning; directly building human resource and capacity; and fostering international partnerships. She said that Iwokrama depended on the participation, goodwill and input of the 13 communities of the North Rupununi.

She said that some of the major experiences, challenges and successes of the Iwokrama programme have been shared and built with the North Rupununi District Development Board and its constituent communities.

The recent zoning of the forest into two main areas -- a wilderness preserve and a sustainable utilisation area -- she said was one of intense discussion, debate, scientific analysis and real collaboration among all stakeholders.

In terms of building human resources and capacity, Dr Monk referred to the graduation of 12 young men and women from a two-year ranger-training programme. They were coursed in practical maintenance skills, survival and camping skills, identification of flora and fauna and traditional Amerindian culture among other areas and were already being sought after by other forestry operations and eco-tourism enterprises. Another course was being planned at present.

Capacity building to manage the resources held by communities, another platform of the sustainable hinterland development programme, will include supporting the conservation of a valued resource identified by the communities themselves. Iwokrama will pay a modest fee to support surveys and research into uses and attributes of the resource. Proposed or planned contracts were being arranged between Rupertee to develop a management plan for a particular tree species and with Apoteri for the conservation of the endangered freshwater arapaima.

Dr Monk also noted Iwokrama's interest in the local people; documenting their language and way of life in publications the Makushi Research Unit and the granting of copyright to the North Rupununi District Development Board. Describing the move by government as commendable, she noted, that materials were now being introduced in schools through the Ministry of Education.

In brief remarks, Prime Minister Sam Hinds officially declared open the conference and reiterated government's commitment to sutainable development.

In opening remarks, Chairperson of the Iwokrama Board of Trustees, Angela Cropper, said that the objective of the conference was to examine at the macro level why development policies were not leading to more equity; what were the macro-economic barriers to that outcome; and what were the characteristics of development policy that would assure more equitable outcomes.

The discussions and outcome were to be guided by presentations on 'Equity issues in Caribbean Development', `Equity in Sourcing Natural Resources', `Gender Equity Issues in Sustainable Development', and `Equity in International Environmental Law'.