  As a result of the recent meeting with His Excellency President Jagdeo, the Government of Guyana has facilitated for Iwokrama both a US$300,000 loan from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and a grant of £112,000 (US$200,000) from the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID). The interest-free three-year loan from UNDP will support acceleration of business development within the Iwokrama Forest and help meet administrative and recurrent expenditures. The DFID grant will cover core operating costs from January to March 2005, thus freeing up sufficient funds for Iwokrama to successfully cover costs for 2005.
In facilitating this support, the Government has reiterated its commitment to ensuring the success of Iwokrama, recognising the important role that the organisation has already played in helping build human resource capacity for effective natural resource management in the country. As the flagship protected area in Guyana, Iwokrama Forest is expected to form the basis for the Guyana Protected Area System of the future.
Iwokrama Trustee and Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Honourable Mr. Rudy Insanally commented that, “Iwokrama has played an important role in community institutional and enterprise development that is critical to national development and poverty reduction. Iwokrama’s experiences and lessons learned in collaborative management and small enterprise development are increasingly in demand in Guyana and regionally.”
Iwokrama will continue to organise itself to depend increasingly on generating income from the Iwokrama Forest through sustainable timber harvesting, ecotourism, and providing training services based on years of protected area and collaborative management experience. Director General (Ag) Dr. David Singh stated, “While Iwokrama expects to cover its operating expenses for 2005 and implement its business plan, it was essential to immediately address the challenges for the forthcoming year, to ensure that Iwokrama is not faced with the similar financial crisis in the latter part of this year as was faced in 2004.”
Dr. Singh also pointed out that, “This was dependent based on the continued hard work of staff and the support of all our stakeholders so that substantial revenues can be earned and projects implemented to strengthen the institutional capacity of Iwokrama to deliver on its mandate of conservation and sustainable use of rainforest resources.”
In March 2003, Iwokrama underwent a major restructuring of its operations and financing. Changes included the reduction of annual expenditures from US$2.18 million in 2002 to US$1.38 million in 2003 to US$1.2 million in 2004.
However, the short term survival of Iwokrama will still depend on the generous support of donors. Even with a greatly increased focus on revenue generation as well as improvements in efficiency, Iwokrama has found it difficult to attract international funding at the rate that was required to address its current financial situation. The main problem in fundraising has been Iwokrama’s historical focus on international donors at a time when global priorities have shifted to terrorism, poverty, and global health issues. Since 1993 Iwokrama has been strongly supported by international donors including the Global Environment Facility, UNDP, Canadian International Development Agency, Department for International Development (UK), and the European Union.
The Iwokrama Business Plan (.pdf, 25 MB) estimates that an additional US$1 million of donor funds is required in 2005 and 2006 to reach self sufficiency by 2007. Iwokrama has worked through 2004 to develop the capacity to attract donations from foundations, individuals and corporations in the USA. A new US non-profit, Iwokrama Friends - USA, Inc., was formed last November and has already begun to generate funds through direct contributions. The Government of Guyana and Iwokrama are also working closely on approaches to the German Government, the International Tropical Timber Organization, and the European Union to source additional funds.
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