ISC members along with Iwokrama staff S Seelall
Georgetown: The first meeting for the Iwokrama Science Committee, where brainstorming sessions on shaping a new research strategy for Iwokrama was held.
The recent inaugural meeting took place at the Iwokrama River Lodge with key Iwokrama staffers in attendance. Initial members of this Committee includes Professor Kamal Bawa (University of Massachusetts, Boston and ATREE Trust), Dr. Braulio Ferreira De Souza (former Executive Secretary of Convention for Biological Diversity, Dr. Thomas Wagner (Edinburgh University), Dr. Patrick Chesney (Agro Forestry Expert and formerly of UNDP), Calvin Bernard (University of Guyana), Andrew Mitchell (Global Canopy Programme), Dane Gobin (CEO, Iwokrama), Dr. Raquel Thomas (Iwokrama).
A meeting was also held with representatives of the North Rupununi District Development Board (NRDDB), including the Toshao of Fair View Village, and comments about some of the areas that they would like to see targeted were shared. The Fair View village is the only village of the 20 NRDDB villages that is located within the Iwokrama Forest.
In November 2017, Iwokrama announced a new partnership with ExxonMobil who provided an investment of $62 Million Guyana Dollars (US$300,000) to support Iwokrama in the re-launch of its Science Programme.
With this partnership between the two organisations to re-establish the internationally prestigious Science Programme, the intention will be to action key scientific research within the Iwokrama forest and its environs.
This initial contribution from ExxonMobil has provided support for the establishment of the Iwokrama Science Committee, commission research and gap baseline studies, based on the advice of the Committee members, to inform a more comprehensive program on biodiversity and other relevant research.
Further meetings will be held during the first half of the year with the expectation that a new five year science programme will be developed by June 2018.
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