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President, Commonwealth discuss threatened Iwokrama project
President Donald Ramotar continued his bilateral discussions in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly’s 67th debate. On Wednesday morning, he and Foreign Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett met with Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Kamalesh Sharma, and a delegation to discuss a wide range of issues.
Accompanying the President is his wife Deolatchmie Ramotar.
Included in the discussions were the Iwokrama Rainforest Project and the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka next year.
President Donald Ramotar in meeting with Commonwealth Secretary General Mr Kamalesh Sharma (2nd right) and another Commonwealth Official. Also in photo is Guyana’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations George Talbot ( to President’s right)
Sharma said that the meeting with President Ramotar was “very fruitful” and touched on several issues, including observing Guyana’s elections over the years.
“There are lots to discuss always and we covered the grounds, environment, elections and other areas of cooperation, particularly in the CHOGM that is coming next month, so it was a very rich discussion,” Sharma said.
President Ramotar concurred that the discussions were very successful and he is satisfied with the outcome. He recalled Guyana’s long-standing relationship with the organisation dating back to since independence.
“We have been an active participant in Commonwealth activities, conferences and meetings in different parts of the world. My discussion this morning (Wednesday) with the Secretary General focused on some issues as these relate to Iwokrama.
“Those issues we are trying to have them resolved; we also talked about their elections mission in Guyana, the observations they make … we spoke generally about Commonwealth issues and the upcoming conference next November, where we hope that we can push the Commonwealth to be even more active in international affairs, because it’s a very big organisation, it has a lot of international influence so we will see what could be done,” the Head of State said.
The Iwokrama Centre came into being in 1996 following the signing of an international agreement between the Guyana Government and the Commonwealth Secretariat with the mandate to “promote the conservation and the sustainable and equitable use of tropical rainforests in a manner that will lead to lasting ecological, economic and social benefits to the people of Guyana and to the world in general”.
However, the lack of funding is threatening the project.
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