Iwokrama has slimmed down and refocused
Packed forum receives report for 2002-2003
By John Mair
Stabroek News
July 20, 2004
Seventy people packed into the Jock Campbell Room of the Georgetown Club last Friday night to hear Winston Cox, the chair of the Trustees of the Iwokrama Project deliver their annual report for 2002-2003. It contained a bitter-sweet message; less revenue yet the same ambitions and demands. A circle which they were trying to square.
Revenue to the Project had nearly halved in the year from US$2.1m in 2002 to US$1.3m in 2003 as a result of the failure to re-sign some of the major donors who had contributed millions to the first ten years of this unique project. Aid money from the International Community has simply flowed elsewhere-away from Conservation to the 'fight against terrorism' and alleviating poverty worldwide. But Cox was determined that Iwokrama would, if need be, 'Remain the last stand of the Guyanese Forest'.
The project has now accepted the new reality, slimmed down and refocused. Many senior staff, often expatriate, have been 'let go'; the headquarters building is now more modest. The focus in now on a Business Plan to keep Iwokrama going through the hard times. This was touched on by the newly appointed Guyanese born Managing Director Graham Watkins.
Tourism (where the new Canopy Walkway is providing a draw) and partnerships with the likes of Conservation International are now the name of the game plus the marketing of forest products including timber. The funds available for sustainable forestry management have been cut to a fraction of their previous level. Conservation grants from bodies such as Jacksonville and Philadelphia zoos are now actively sought and won.
The scientific research programme of Iwokrama has been put somewhat on hold in the interest of financial survival. A laboratory built at the University of Guyana is yet to find the sponsorship to operate it.
Iwokrama was a gift to the people of the Commonwealth from the people of Guyana more than a decade ago: one million acres of virgin rainforest (two percent of Guyana's land area) to be managed in a sympathetic and sustainable way. Much good has come from the Project in the communities of the North Rupununi and Sydney Allicock, there to represent them on the board, was at the forum in full voice where he called for 'Guyanese to be more patriotic' and support Iwokrama. His contribution was well received as was that of all of the Board of Trustees who spoke. The seventy 'Friends of Iwokrama' present wanted it to pull through and offered all the help they could.
The simple dilemma for this project is its ambitions are no longer matched by revenue. It set out to pioneer on many fronts - Forestry, Conservation and Community Partnerships - but has had to rein in some of the more grandiose of those as the revenue base has shrunk. Cox, the number two in the Commonwealth Secretariat which now provides nearly a tenth of its budget through senior staff support, was hopeful that the 'goodwill of the Guyanese community' would see Iwokrama back to full financial health and moving forward. Minister of Amerindian Affairs Carolyn Rodrigues was also at the Forum. She is on the Board of Trustees and was at its meeting which preceded this public forum. She offered the Government of Guyana's continued support' to the project.
So the business markers have been laid down for a more secure future for Guyana's unique contribution to the world; it is now up to the New Managing Director and his board to make sure those markers are permanent ways forward and not simply steps on the way to failure. The encouraging turnout for the Forum indicated that at least some Guyanese are willing this to be the way.