Georgetown: The Iwokrama International Centre announced Monday that with funding from ExxonMobil Guyana it is now able to remotely monitor the Iwokrama forest using drone technology.
The drone, which has communication capability, will help to significantly monitor areas of the forest in which illegal activities are prevalent, supporting the work of enforcement teams which will be supplemented by the Guyana Police Force and the Corps of Wardens from the Ministry of Natural Resources.
Over the last several months, there has been an increase in illegal activities brought on by high gold prices and the COVID-19 restrictions.
According to Chief Executive Officer, Dane Gobin these illegal activities are a threat to the international certification which the Iwokrama Forest has maintained since 2008. “The Centre recorded increased numbers of illegals plying the Georgetown – Lethem roadway and the rivers bordering the Iwokrama Forest,” he revealed.
Mr. Gobin warned that the Centre has adopted a zero tolerance policy for illegal activities within the Iwokrama Forest as it the Centre has provided enough education and awareness exercises. He reminded that the Iwokrama Act provides specific penalties including fines and imprisonment for violations.
Meanwhile, the CEO acknowledged the partnership between ExxonMobil Guyana and Iwokrama has provided much support for conservation and science activities as well as the work we do within communities.
ExxonMobil has been a major supporter of the Iwokrama Science Programme, providing more than GY $ 180 million since 2017. The additional funding of GY $50 million for 2020 will be used to enhance the Centre’s monitoring activities, to explore innovative ways to look at forest management and to introduce a “sponsor-an-acre” programme – a first for Guyana.
The Centre also plans outreach activities, capacity building and awareness programmes for the local communities; the production of Guyana’s “legal field guide for natural resource practitioners”; and the development of the country’s first three-dimensional community map of Fair View village.
About Iwokrama
The Iwokrama International Centre (IIC) was established in 1996 under a joint mandate from the Government of Guyana and the Commonwealth Secretariat to manage the Iwokrama forest, a unique reserve of 371,000 hectares of rainforest “in a manner that will lead to lasting ecological, economic and social benefits to the people of Guyana and to the world in general”.
The Centre, guided by an international Board of Trustees is unique, providing a dedicated well managed and researched forest environment. The forest is zoned into a Sustainable Utilization Area (SUA) and a Wilderness Preserve (WP) in which to test the concept of a truly sustainable forest where conservation, environmental balance and economic use can be mutually reinforcing. The IIC collaborates with the Government of Guyana, the Commonwealth and other international partners and donors to develop new approaches and forest management models to enable countries with rainforests to market their ecosystem services whilst carefully managing their resources through innovative and creative conservation practices.
Iwokrama brings together:
- 20 local communities (approximately 7,000 people) who are shareholders and participants in the IIC’s sustainable timber, tourism, research operations and forest management activities through complex co-management and benefit sharing arrangements;
- Scientists and researchers engaged in ground breaking research into the impacts of climate change on the forest and measuring the scope and value of its ecosystem services; and
- A portfolio of sustainably managed and certified business models using innovative governance systems which include participation of the private and public sectors and the local communities, earning income from the forest and its natural assets whilst employing international social, environmental and economic best practice, whilst still keeping abreast of the ever changing thinking on funding for environmental projects in the face of climate change and the perennial scarcity of international finance.
This alliance and the Centre’s work programmes are committed to showing how a rain forest can be used for real sustainability, real climate change protection and real community benefit.
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