And he sees his mission as one of demonstrating to the world that to a large extent, biodiversity can pay for itself.

As a result, Professor Swingland announced during a visit here last week, that a revolution is about to take place at Iwokrama, and that he expects to see positive results by March next year.

But he sees as a significant barrier to this objective, the impassable road leading to the Iwokrama International Centre. This road, he said, would have to be fixed if the centre is to realise this goal.

At a media encounter at the Hotel Tower in Georgetown, the Professor spoke about his plans and emphasised that the imminent revolution will not see any changes to the centre's mission, but will seek to make its initiatives much clearer.

He said the overall mission will remain the same, but Iwokrama's focus will be to demonstrate that biodiversity conservation can be sustainable and not based on constant donations from other organisations, which process is a very indefinite and insecure way of funding something in the long-term.

"We will be out to show, to a large extent that Iwokrama can earn its own living," the new Chairman of the Board added.

One aspect of the new plan is to ensure that sufficient funds are raised into a trust fund so that the interest would effectively meet the basic running costs of the operation.

Among other elements: embarking on a programme where donor institutions, many of which are in Canada and across the world such as the European Union, could see where they can infuse further funds into the organisation's programme; reducing operational costs; and ensuring there is a core establishment that would go on forever, and, bring in the additional monies in the long-term.

The Iwokrama Mission Statement is "To promote the conservation and the sustainable and equitable use of tropical rain forests in a manner that will lead to lasting ecological, economic and social benefits to the people of Guyana and to the world in general, by undertaking research, training, and the development and dissemination of technologies."

REVOLUTIONISING IWOKRAMA
Professor Swingland's attempt at revolutionising Iwokrama is to demonstrate to the world that biodiversity can, by a large extent, pay for itself, and does not have to continue receiving money as it could earn revenue by way of various activities.

"As such, we need to embark on an interesting, exciting and cohesive programme to attract donors, who will be willing to give money on a regular basis for various projects," he reiterated.

According to him, it is his job, together with Director General of Iwokrama, Dr. Kathryn Monk and other members of the Board, to ensure that Iwokrama survives permanently as the best example in the Commonwealth family, of what can be achieved, and to ensure that it benefits the people of Guyana.

"We've got a tough few years ahead of us...we have got tremendous support worldwide from all the donor agencies and many of their resident representatives in this country...virtually the entire community here and worldwide is watching what happens, because Iwokrama is the icon of what can be done within the Commonwealth," the Chairman said.

Swingland, whose appointment has been sanctioned by the Guyana Government, the Commonwealth Secretariat and His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, said that as the only Professor of Conservation Biology in Britain and four other countries, his appointment was based on his reputation of creating institutions, getting them funded and making them self-sustainable.

He described Iwokrama as "unique", and the largest project in the Commonwealth by far, both in size -- one million acres -- and in terms of its enormous aspirations and programmes, which are already in place.

"But," he pointed out, "the programmes cost money."

Swingland noted that with Guyana being a Cooperative Republic, Guyanese should therefore be proud of Iwokrama as it is the "icon of cooperation".

Iwokrama has its genesis in an offer made by the Guyana Government in 1989 to set aside one million acres of its pristine forest to the international community to be used as a demonstration area where the ecological, social and economic nature and potential of tropical rainforests could be studied and tested in a hands-on way.

It is expected that the resulting knowledge will demonstrate how forest ecosystems can be used to increase social and economic benefits to forest user-groups everywhere without destroying the forest.

And as part of this research, eco-tourism has been developed allowing visitors from around the world to experience the wonders of the rainforest in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way.

Told that Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Navin Chandarpal has said that Iwokrama has not been attracting the kind of funding it should, given its international nature, the Chairman of the Board concurred.

He pointed out that over the last year, Dr. Monk has had to restructure and reorganise much of what the organisation was doing to give it a much better focus, noting that while it has had four years of development it has not yet been established permanently.

Swingland said that by March next year the current funds would be exhausted.

He reiterated that earning its own living is going to be a major thing for Iwokrama because the organisation has to be responsible for itself.

"I have no intention of going to the Government of Guyana and asking for some money...the million acres which were given is a magnificent gift..." the Chairman he pointed out.

He emphasised that the onus is on Iwokrama to make certain that in its initiatives, everything it does from now on is self-funding, as it just cannot be primed and expect to live on its own millings.

ROAD SETBACK
Commenting on the deplorable condition of the road to the centre, the professor said Iwokrama cannot actually do its eco-tourism because there is no road.

Urging that the Government pay some attention as early as possible, he said that because of the state of the road, the centre is prevented from getting people and supplies and stores to the location.

In addition, travelling on the hazardous road absorbs vast quantities of manpower and time.

Meanwhile, Monk, who accompanied the Professor, said she was extremely happy to have him join the family.

She noted too, that after accepting the post the Professor flew to Guyana some three hours later and has been working since in his quest to absorb more about the organisation.

Biographical data on Professor Swingland describes him as one of the world's leading ecologists and a founder figure of modern conservation science, in addition to being the founding co-Editor-in-Chief of "Biodiversity and Conservation 1989-1998".

Founder of the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE) and the Herpetological Conservation Trust, he holds the Emeritus Chair in Conservation Biology at the University of Kent as well as Visiting Chairs in Michigan, Florence, Auckland and Manchester.

He is a research associate of the Smithsonian Institute, an advisor on conservation and biodiversity management to the World Bank, the Global Environment Facility, the Asian Development Bank and the United Kingdom Government.

He was recently International Consultant to the largest single biodiversity project in the world -- the Sundarbans Reserve Forest Project in Bangladesh.