The cash-strapped Iwokrama International Centre for Rain Forest Conservation and Development is to let go of around 20 senior staffers by the end of the month as it seeks to implement a rescue plan.
Also, the Director-General, Dr Kathryn Monk, had made it known to the Board that she did not wish to renew her contract when it comes to an end on May 31.
“In any case, in the present financial crisis, Iwokrama is now not in a position where it could renew her contract. At its meeting on March 3, the Board appointed Dr. Graham Watkins as Acting Director General with immediate effect. Dr. Watkins was the Senior Wildlife Biologist with the Centre. To smooth the process of change, it was subsequently agreed by all parties that Dr Monk would no longer act as the chief executive, and that Dr. Watkins as Acting Director General would assume the full responsibilities of the Director General.
“Dr Monk will spend the remaining few weeks of her contract handing over to Dr. Watkins,” reporters were told at a press conference held at the centre’s Georgetown office.
The press briefing was called by Professor Ian Swingland, the Chairman of Iwokrama International Board of Trustees.
Since the centre has to save cash, it is the senior staffers who are affected because they are paid more, explained Wycliffe McAllister, a former Guyana Defence Force officer and one of those to be let go of. Stabroek News understands that many of the staffers who have been made redundant had earlier indicated that they would not be renewing their contracts upon completion of projects, while several others had started looking for other jobs.
Sources within Iwokrama said McAllister’s cut was one of the biggest upsets on Thursday, since he was considered “critical” staff and they had not expected him to go. McAllister had been with the conservation centre for just over a year.
Since 2001, Iwokrama had been trying to access more funding to sustain its operations and there was a “survival plan” to make the centre more commercially viable by 2005. But by the end of last year, downscaling operations were inevitable. Those who lost their jobs were informed at a private staff meeting on Thursday before the press briefing.
“We were cautiously optimistic that we would have gotten bridge funding...ideally we did not want to downscale operations,” an upbeat McAllister explained yesterday.
But Professor Swingland told reporters on Thursday: “After months of deep uncertainty, Iwokrama, Guyana and Commonwealth’s showcase environmental initiative is poised to rejuvenate itself to demonstrate to the world that the use and conservation of tropical forests is not only possible, but essential for economic and environmental sustainability combined with social equity. At a time when Iwokrama was looking for modest funds to carry it into a new phase of enterprise development, job creation and greater self-sufficiency, the world has gone into an economic nosedive.”
He said further that with stock markets crashing, the possibility of securing even the meagre funds that Iwokrama had hoped for had receded, and drastic action was required.
For the past week, Swingland said, he led a team of experts, in his capacity as the new Chairman of the Iwokrama Board, who worked furiously to develop a rescue plan that will enable the centre to carry on its valuable work while seeking the means to secure the programme’s long-term future.
He said he was confident that “with some flexibility from the donors, the support and hard work of our remarkable staff, and perhaps a modicum of luck, we can pull through this very difficult period.”
According to Swingland, the rescue plan they had developed, and which was approved by the board, will involve radical changes, starting at the top.
“The survival plan which required some sweeping changes to staffing was announced this morning [Thursday] by me at the centre’s headquarters here in Georgetown, and by fellow Trustee, Commissioner of Forests James Singh, at the Iwokrama Field Station in Kurupukari. The Board has had to make some agonising decisions, but we have had to pare to the minimum level that will allow Iwokrama to continue its priority activities, while maintaining an ability to expand rapidly when additional resources become available.”
He expressed regret that Iwokrama was losing highly committed and remarkable staff, but in the critical months to come, he added, the centre may be able to contract work to some former staff.
“I am committed to providing any help I could to assist people to find other jobs, or set up their own businesses. In any case, when Iwokrama gets back on its feet, we hope that some personnel will return to work with us,” Swingland said.
The coming weeks and months are critical for Iwokrama, Swingland said, and the streamlined team has to produce an inventory and management plan that is funded by the International Tropical Timber Organisation, and continue its work to set up sustainable businesses based on the centre’s forest resources.
Iwokrama is tasked to demonstrate to the world that it can make money out of its forest assets and bring benefits to local communities, to Guyana, and itself, and they need to show that they can do this without destroying the forest, Swingland stated.
He noted too that Iwokrama has highly capable staff and a Board that is committed to seeing the centre excel, besides there is strong support from the Government of Guyana, the donors and the Commonwealth Secretariat.
“Notwithstanding this tremendous support, I do not pretend that the coming weeks will be easy.
However, I am quietly confident that we can bring Iwokrama back from the brink, and make Iwokrama the success that the world needs and expects,” the professor said.
The Iwokrama project had its genesis in a 1989 pledge by then President Desmond Hoyte at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to set aside a million acres of virgin forests for conservation and research studies. Since then the project has struggled to attract interest and firm up initiatives that would allow it to attract funds and ensure sustainability. A key new thrust is the promotion of tourism in conjunction with communities near the concession.