Iwokrama, Rupununi board sign forest management pact
Stabroek News
January 18, 2004
The Iwokrama International Centre will collaborate with its community counterpart in the North Rupununi for management of the forest and related ecosystems.
To this end, it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the North Rupununi District Development Board (NRDDB) earlier this month. The MOU lays out the general guidelines for the partnership between Iwokrama and the NRDDB and provides a platform for all further agreements and contacts between the two parties.
The respective mandates of the Iwokrama Act and the governing constitution of the NRDDB comprise the basis of the MOU and inform the obligations, limitations and mutually agreed upon principles of both parties. The MOU sets out the principle of collaborative and collective decision-making.
Other key components of the MOU include the obligation of Iwokrama and its staff to respect community protocols, customs and traditions, to work with the NRDDB with a view to minimising potential negative social and cultural impacts from Iwokrama's activities and to guarantee positive benefits and outcomes from business enterprises and other activities. Many of Iwokrama's forest rangers are from the North Rupununi district.
A release from the centre on Friday said the MOU is guided by a shared vision to invest in the wise management of the Iwokrama forest and the related ecosystems of the North Rupununi.
The release said that the milestone was passed at the statutory bi-monthly meeting of the NRDDB held in the Bena Hill Institute in the Annai Amerindian District of Region Nine. The MOU affirms the commitment of Iwokrama to people-centred development and is mindful of the aspirations, rights and values of the indigenous peoples and other Guyanese comprising the 14 community partners and local institutions represented by the NRDDB.
The MOU was drafted and negotiated during the second half of 2003 and matures the established relationship between Iwokrama and the NRDDB. The release said too that the MOU paves the way for improving the scope, reach and status of joint undertakings and enterprises. It also formalises the objectives and relations of the two parties. The release said that the MOU is the result of the relationship built between the two entities since 1986 when the NRDDB established itself.
The NRDDB is a community counterpart to the Iwokrama Board of Trustees and has a mandate of overseeing the development of communities in the North Rupununi district. As a result of severely reduced core funding over the past two years, Iwokrama has had to explore new ways of income generation as it sought to become more self-sustaining. As a result, Iwokrama has gone into the forestry products harvesting, fish farming and other sustainable activities, including tourism, around the North Rupununi area.