By Lakhram Bhagirat
Nature has the uncanny ability to make even the most troubled soul feel at peace. It has the ability to keep us grounded and teach us compassion for all things. Nature keeps us in tune with ourselves and one of the most satisfying professions is one that involves nature.
However, in order to be satisfied with a nature-related profession, you have to be someone who loves nature. It is quite challenging to be alone for most the time, but it is also amazing to come into contact with different species of flora and fauna.
Just the thought of being at one with nature is enough to make a lot of people jealous, and Micah Davis is very much aware of that fact. He also relishes in the opportunity to be in a profession he absolutely loves. The 28-year-old father of one has been with the Iwokrama International Centre for Rain Forest Conservation and Development for over a decade and now serves as its Head Ranger.
Micah hails from the North Rupununi village of Toka and recalls his childhood as one that was filled with challenges and fun. For him, what kept him grounded was his oneness with nature.
“It was tough growing up in Toka because money was a big issue when I was a kid. I remember when transportation was a challenge at home and we had to walk long distances to go to find food. We would have to go to the border of Brazil just to exchange farine for other items to put in the kitchen with my father. It was all too much; by mainly just living with nature at home was what actually had me going,” Micah said.
Life for Micah never got to the point where it was easy; however, things did get somewhat better for him when he started to attend the Annai Secondary School. However, upon completion of his secondary education, Micah knew he could not just sit at home and do nothing.
Coming from an Indigenous community meant that he had very little opportunities for employment available to him. He knows in order for him to get a job, he would have to venture out of the community, but it was something he was sceptical about. 
At the age of 18, armed with his love for nature and animals, Micah was given the opportunity to work with the Iwokrama International Centre for Rain Forest Conservation and Development as a Bird Monitor. His employment came as part of a special project that Iwokrama was conducting.
“When I had my first job as a Bird Monitor in which I actually had the opportunity to conduct outreach in communities and teach kids natural resource management and that is when I learn a lot while teaching and my love for nature continues until now.
“What we (Bird Monitors) actually did was ride a bicycle in the forest, stopping at certain points and then running some transects. This will be recording different species of birds because Iwokrama, at that time, was still working on the list of the bird species that can be found within the Iwokrama rainforest. In bird monitoring, they have a different way of recording different species of birds. We do that while stopping at a point, you will record the bird by calling or if you see it and then also we would walk a certain distance along the forest and do something called bird point counts…. you would sit and record different kinds of birds you would hear, see within a 50-metre radius,” Micah explains.
The bird monitoring gig was a temporary post with Iwokrama and in 2011, he became a permanent member of the team as a Ranger. His love for what he did was quite evident in the way he worked resulting in Micah being appointed Head Ranger in 2012 and he continues in that position today.
“My duties as the Head Ranger is, first of all, logistics in terms of organising different things for the Rangers, but apart from that, my main role and responsibility here as the Head Ranger is conducting road patrols, which entail border patrol, road, river and then working with researchers and also conducting community outreach and dealing with tourists in terms of tour guiding.”
Micah says he is loving every minute of his job as it gives him great satisfaction to be able to connect with nature and learn so much every day. He approaches every new day as a new dawn of possibilities and endless learning. For him, no two days are the same despite him having a routine.
He urges everyone to go out, explore, discover and connect with nature, because the possibilities are endless. You never know, you may fall in love and give up your regular job for one that makes your heart race every day. (Guyana Times Sunday Magazine)
