The difficulty facing the Iwokrama Rainforest Project is ample testimony that a good idea cannot survive without a viable plan and the money to back it. Beset by a serious financial crisis, Iwokrama earlier this month announced substantial staff cutbacks and the crafting of a survival plan. It also recognized the urgent need to show that it can be self sustaining or at least earn enough to cover a significant part of its operating costs.
The late former President Desmond Hoyte’s proposal in 1989 to set aside one million acres of virgin forest as a laboratory for the world’s conservationists has foundered in three areas: the absence of a clear-cut objective, a plan to achieve this objective and the wherewithal to do it.
In the backdrop of the devastation of the Amazon and rainforests in South East Asia and Africa in the 1980s, the concept of forest “conservation” became very fashionable two decades ago. To many decision makers in the West and global financial institutions, it meant that forests should simply be set aside to absorb the thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide being spewed from the developed countries’ industrial plants. The Third World’s and Guyana’s conservation concept was elementally to show how forest resources could be managed in such a way that harvesting did not reduce the diversity of the flora and fauna in the concession or lead to aberrations such as clear felling and the opening up of forest canopies. It would also demonstrate that logging was not the only viable use of forest concessions. It was in this vein that the proposal to set aside a forest concession in the heart of the country was made by Guyana to the Commonwealth Summit in Kuala Lumpur.
Fourteen years later, the problem remains the same. How to shape a proposal for the use of the concession that global conservationists would find uniquely interesting and would invest time and money in trying to extract lessons from this living laboratory.
Iwokrama was not unique in conceptualization and today has to contend with many similar initiatives in Brazil, Belize, Costa Rica and other parts of the world. Just a few days ago, Gabon announced the creation of 13 national parks covering 10% of the country’s land mass (7.5M acres) as part of a drive to preserve the Congo River Basin. Six African countries are participating in this massive US$53M, US-sponsored Congo Basin Forest Partnership.
With so much competition around, Iwokrama’s challenge is to carve a niche for itself to begin earning enough to keep going and to attract funds. And it did gather a large amount of funds - at least US$15M in the last five years from a variety of donors and very early on at least US$3M from the Global Environment Fund. This funding did not lead to the types of programmes that would have garnered large-scale scientific interest and this is obviously one issue that prospective donors considered last year during attempts to canvass new financing for the project. As a result, despite pledges of goodwill there was little in the form of cash. The employment cost has been a key concern as it has accounted for a significant portion of the donor financing.
In recent years, a major focus of funding at Iwokrama has been eco-tourism. One key feature is a canopied forest walkway which is to be inaugurated shortly. The thinking is that tourism in the concession could be a money spinner and communities on the fringes of the concession could also piggyback on this by offering tourists an in situ glimpse into their everyday activities and craft making etc.
The concession has also been zoned into two areas: one to be kept in a pristine state as a wilderness preserve and the other as a laboratory for sustainable utilization.
Given that it has thus far failed to spark the kind of global interest envisaged, a key challenge for the present Iwokrama Board is to marry the prospects for the concession with what in the near to medium term synchronises with Guyana’s needs. Tourism, for instance, is said to be a primary focus in the diversification of the economic sector though the government has spent parsimoniously on it and political instability and crime remain two major impediments. Nevertheless, there is no reason why a plan to bring larger numbers of tourists to Iwokrama - bypassing the capital city and its endless woes - could not be pursued as a sort of joint venture between Iwokrama and the government. Additional tourist facilities would have to be put in place and the government could assist in the advertising and publicising of the campaign and revenues could be shared.
With the growing importance of the wood-cutter as opposed to large scale forestry operators, Iwokrama could open up sections of its sustainable utilisation zone to such operations for a share of the profits while demonstrating how this would not endanger the concession. This could then be franchised as a model in the Commonwealth and further afield.
Bio-prospecting licences for the concession could be offered to reputable drug research companies under close supervision to ensure the protection of intellectual property.
Agro projects such as cut flowers - a longstanding area with great potential - could also be considered in conjunction with local venture capitalists.
Though still not fully developed, there are also carbon sequestration possibilities for concessions like Iwokrama under the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism and these should be explored.
These areas would require considered planning, feasibility studies and the taking of risks. Fourteen years on, Guyana needs to learn finally whether there is hope for transforming this important concession into a model for beneficial sustainable logging and use of forest resources.