The Darwin Initiative funded project, “Sustainable Management of the Rupununi – Linking Biodiversity, Environment and People”, has now completed one year of activity in Guyana. The project commenced in January 2004 with training and planning exercises at the Field Station. These activities set the stage for the wetlands monitoring project that began in April 2004 and is managed by Iwokrama.
The Rupununi Wetlands, like the Iwokrama Forest, are home to healthy populations of Giants of El Dorado, including Giant River Turtles, Black Caiman, Arapaima, Giant Otters, and of course, water-loving Jaguars. |
In January 2005 a second round of training and planning commenced on January 10th in Georgetown and concluded on January 26th at the Field Station. The focus was on the use of techniques for Collaborative Natural Resources Management, GIS and Participatory 3-Dimensional Modelling (P3DM), Data Analysis, and an evaluation of the project’s past year. The instructors were Dr. Matthew Simpson (Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, UK), Dr. Jayalaxashmi Mistry (Royal Holloway University, London, UK), and Dr. Andrea Berardi (The Open University, UK). Trainees included all members of the project team and three Conservation International Guyana rangers.
Techniques gained from the training exercises were tested on three local indigenous communities – Surama, Annai and Toka - in a preliminary assessment of how communities use the resources of the wetland system. Similar assessments are planned for the remaining communities of the North Rupununi by the end of April 2005. During the community visits the process of building 3-dimensional models of the community resource areas was introduced to the community of Surama. These models give community members a bird’s eye view of what their area looks like and how they use it. The model produced was well received and plans are now in progress to prepare similar models for the other communities.
A much anticipated stakeholder forum scheduled for the University of Guyana Campus, Turkeyen on January 27th was forced into postponement due to the flooding in coastal Guyana at the time. This forum is now slated for April 2005. It is hoped that results from the data collected from the last year of monitoring exercises can be presented to stakeholders. Plans are also in progress to prepare a “State of the Rupununi” report which will be distributed to stakeholders.
A major outcome of the training is a shift in the decision-making responsibilities within the project, with the Guyanese project staff taking-up greater responsibility for the management of the projects activities. Project staff expressed a renewed sense of purpose and great motivation to continue along the path to the development of an adaptive management system which will ensure the sustainable utilization of the wetland resources of the Rupununi.
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