Kaieteur National Park being closely monitored for illegal mining

Sep 10, 2008 News

Shyam Nokta

Illegal mining is one of the encroachments that the management of the Kaieteur National Park has been monitoring closely over the years.

Chairman of the Park, Shyam Nokta told Kaieteur News that while miners have started to conform with to respect the protected area, there are sporadic infringements.

The Guyana Geology and Mines Commission have been working with the Park’s rangers to address this problem.

While the Park’s management is on top of the situation, Nokta said, it is not a case where they can ‘step back and relax.’

“We need to always be vigilant. What we do is we arrange multi-agency safaris into the park.

We also have our wardens, who respond whenever we get reports of any mining activity that maybe near to the boundaries of the park or within the park,’ Nokta added.

Kaieteur National Park is situated on the Guiana Shield, a plateau that is one of the world’s oldest and remotest geological formations.

The entire Kaieteur National Park area is located within one of the largest and most bio-diverse rainforests in the world.

Over the years, Kaieteur Park has been subject to competing interests for its rich natural wealth.

The Park was downsized in the 1970s to facilitate mining in the area, and then expanded in the 1990s to protect the watershed and the integrity of the area from that very same mining.

Today, Kaieteur National Park covers an area of 224 square miles, or approximately 62,700 hectares.