Iwokrama…the jewel of the jungle

Aug 14, 2016 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

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(An Address by His Excellency Brigadier David Granger to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development)

The Guiana Shield – a vast area of over 2.7 million km² – can be considered as God’s ‘second’ Garden

of Eden. The Shield is one of Earth’s most biologically diverse; one of earth’s largest remaining blocks of tropical forest and one of earth’s oldest geological formations.
The Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development (IICRCD) is near to the geographical centre of the Guiana Shield and a priceless jewel in the jungle of our country.
Iwokrama is an idea whose time had come. The 11th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, held in Malaysia in October 1989, took note of the degradation of earth’s environment and the threat this posed “to present and future generations.” The Heads of Government issued the Langkawi Declaration on the Environment which emphasized that the “responsibility for ensuring a better environment should be equitably shared and the ability of developing countries to respond be taken into account.”
The Cooperative Republic of Guyana immediately took that responsibility into account. We boldly embraced the idea that a ‘small’ fish could make a ‘big ‘wave in the world. We committed 371,000 hectares of our forest – an area larger than Malta, the Maldives or Montserrat – to be used as a model for conservation and sustainable development. Our gift remains an unmatched gesture to global environmental governance.
Iwokrama was established seven years after the Langkawi Declaration. This came with the passage of the Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development Act, by Guyana’s National Assembly on 14th March 1996. The Act set out to:
…develop, demonstrate and make available to Guyana and the international community, systems, methods and techniques for the sustainable management and utilisation of the multiple resources of tropical forests and the conservation of biological diversity.
Iwokrama, therefore, is embedded in our territory, in our law, in our economy and in our political culture.
The ‘Centre’, today, is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its legislation, not its conceptualisation and gestation. The ‘Centre’ has demonstrated how the forest can be used for conservation and scientific investigation. It has shown how a single, small country could contribute to mitigating climate change while promoting sustainable development. Iwokrama is:
· the core of our country – Guyana’s ‘green heart;’.
· the cradle of biological diversity – home to some of world the world’s rarest flora and fauna.
The Paris Agreement, which was agreed on in December 2015 and which I signed in New York at the United Nations in April 2016, represents an important landmark in international cooperation to address climate change. The ‘Agreement’ has had a long gestation but, now that it has been signed and sealed, we anticipate that greater international political attention and financial resources will be devoted to biodiversity.
Iwokrama is part of the lungs of the Earth. It is a global resource helping to mitigate climate change. Guyana looks to the international community to commit more resources to the Centre to allow it to continue to be a model of sustainable development.
The Convention on Biological Diversity – the multilateral environmental agreement to which Guyana is a signatory – calls for the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of its benefits. These international commitments reinforce our resolve to ensure the harmonious development of the great natural capital of this blessed country.
The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, sustainable development Goal 15, mandates us to:
“protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss”.
Iwokrama, with its rich biodiversity, is pivotal to positioning our economy onto a green growth pathway. It is our key to preserving our environmental patrimony. The pursuit of sustainable development cannot be achieved unless there is an unobstructed obligation to the protection of our biodiversity.
Iwokrama, with yet undiscovered and unexploited resources, is essential to our economic existence. Guyana will continue to seek support for the establishment of an International Institute for Biodiversity at Iwokrama to complement the work of the ‘Centre’s’ efforts and education on sustainable development. The Institute will allow for students and researchers from the Guiana Shield, the Continent, the Caribbean and the rest of the world to come to Iwokrama to study its biodiversity and to increase their knowledge and understanding of our vital ecosystems.
Iwokrama can teach the world lessons on biodiversity. Sanctuaries for the conservation and preservation of our rich flora and fauna will be established. It is my Government’s intention, with the support of international partners, to make Iwokrama into a world-class institute for biodiversity research – a centre of excellence to serve the educational needs of our students for generations to come.
Guyana has a responsibility – and it will uphold that responsibility – to support Iwokrama. It is part of our patrimony. It is central and integral to Guyana’s green development agenda.
I join in extending congratulations to the Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development on its twentieth anniversary. I thank all those who have been involved in promoting the Centre’s objectives.

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