Conservation International Guyana – Teaching communities to care for nature

Nature is integral to our survival, but it is constantly being depleted because of the increasing commercial activities of our time. Conservation International Guyana (CIG), a non-profit non-governmental organization active for more than 20 years, is linking human development with the conservation of the earth’s living natural heritage in order to correct the problem of depletion.

CI imagines a healthy and prosperous world in which societies are forever committed to caring for and valuing nature for the long term benefit of people and all life on earth; as such, their mission, building upon a strong foundation of science, partnerships and field demonstrations, is to empower societies to responsibly and sustainably care for nature and our global biodiversity for the well-being of humanity.

Conservation International was founded in 1987 with program offices and partners in more than 30 countries, including Guyana. In 1996, CIG was registered as a non-profit company, and in 2002 signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the government of Guyana.

CI’s science, policy and fieldwork focuses on protecting and maintaining the health of the species, habitats and ecosystems that are the building blocks of a healthy planet.

In an interview, Executive Director David Singh said that CIG recognizes that the world’s natural resources are diminishing, and resulting from that is the depletion of nature’s ability in providing for us, and so CI’s focus is to maintain nature and send out the message that we need nature to survive.

“People depend on nature for many things. A stable climate, clean air, fresh water, abundant food, cultural resources, and the incalculable additional benefits the world’s biodiversity provides. CI works to ensure a healthy and productive planet for us all,” he declared.

Yet economic and infrastructural development, which are so necessary for human well-being, can also have serious impacts on nature. That is why CI is working at every level, from remote villages to the offices of presidents and premiers, to help move whole societies toward a smarter development path.

Through science, policy and field work, they are applying smart solutions to protect the resources that we all depend on. Help is given to communities, countries and societies to protect tropical forests, lush grasslands, rivers, wetlands, abundant lakes and the sea. Only through properly valuing the essential services these ecosystems provide can they create a sustainable development path that will benefit all people for generations to come. 

Upper Essequibo conservation concession

In July 2002, Conservation International and the government of Guyana entered into an agreement that protects 200,000 acres of pristine forest by establishing the world’s first ‘conservation concession’.

Under this unique approach, CI obtained a 30-year logging licence for a portion of the upper Essequibo River

watershed, with the objective of managing the area for conservation rather than timber exploitation. For this right, CI pays the government of Guyana annual fees comparable to those that would have been paid by a logging company, and has also provided a Voluntary Community Investment Fund (VCIF) to ensure benefits to local communities.

The conservation concession demonstrates how to achieve biodiversity conservation as a transaction between a willing seller and a willing buyer, without requiring new legislation or impinging on national sovereignty. Using existing provisions for timber concessions in Guyana, CI has effectively acted as an intermediary between global willingness-to-pay for conservation and Guyana’s ability to supply biodiversity conservation services.

The key to this success is that the approach directly addresses the opportunity cost of conservation by replacing lost timber revenues; it has made foregoing logging acceptable to the government of Guyana.

Modelled on a standard business transaction – the resource lease – this arrangement has proven to be cost-effective for CI and economically viable for Guyana’s development. Thus, the approach responds to growing calls for transfers from developed to developing countries to finance conservation, while respecting developing countries’ sovereignty by leasing the area in question and preserving ultimate government authority. 

Proposed Kanuku Mountains Protected Area (KMPA)

Conservation International Guyana, at the request of the government of Guyana, and in collaboration with the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, the Environmental Protection Agency, the 18 communities that surround the mountains, the regional government and state land use agencies, has been involved in preliminary work for the establishment of a protected area in the Kanuku Mountains. The process has seen inclusive participation of all stakeholders. Work on the delineation of the boundaries of the Proposed Kanuku Mountains Protected Area has been completed and the management planning process has been started with funding support from Conservation International and the German Bank (KfW).

The Kanuku Mountains, approximately 5000 km2 in area, are located in the heart of the Rupununi Savannahs in south-western Guyana and is the most ecologically diverse area in Guyana. The Kanuku contain habitats as diverse as gallery forests, lowland forests and montane evergreen forests and savannahs, and is home to 70 percent of all mammals and 53 percent of all birds known to exist in Guyana. At least five of the South American giants live in the Kanuku Mountains – the Harpy Eagle, Black Caiman, Giant River Otter, Arapaima fish and the Giant Anteater. The Macusi and Wapishana peoples make up the 7,144 persons (2002) who live in communities in or near to the Kanuku Mountains, caring for and wisely using the resources in the traditional way. However, there are several threats to biodiversity and to the integrity of the area.

In recognition of the value of global biodiversity and the emerging threats, CI Guyana has been engaging the relevant stakeholders including the nearby communities to establish a protected area in the Kanuku Mountains, where the rights and traditions of the indigenous communities will be respected, while a balance of sustainable use and conservation, will be applied to allow for future generations to benefit from the resources of the mountains.

CI Guyana has worked for over 16 years with national level institutions, local and indigenous communities in the area of ecosystem and biodiversity conservation for the long-term benefits of people and all life on earth.