Rupununi students visit Iwokrama as part of Integrated Science research project

Apr 09, 2017 News

Students from across the Rupununi visited the Iwokrama rainforest, last Wednesday, as part of a Grade Nine Integrated Science research project.
Ninety-one students from the St Ignatius Secondary School visited the facility. The school is the only secondary school in Central Rupununi and attracts students from as far away as Karasabai. The students were accompanied by four teachers, including Francine Gomes, Head of the Science Department.
Their visit would have followed on the heels of another Lethem area school visit, the Arapaima school.
“Iwokrama has had ongoing outreach activities to schools, universities and the general public. However, we are ecstatic to be getting more community schools coming to visit,” said Raquel Thomas, a forest ecologist and Director of Resource Management and Training at Iwokrama.
She added, “We have also had more schools coming from Georgetown as well. It is very important for children to learn about conservation and sustainable use of forests and for them to really see the natural beauty of Guyana.”
Ms. Gomes said that the students’ science project focuses on the symbiotic relationships among plants, namely commensalism, parasitism, and mutualism.
The students were tasked with, among other exercises, identifying – by name – the plants that share these relationships and explaining how plants affect and are affected by each other and other organisms in their environment.
Another objective of the students’ assignment was to observe, describe and classify plants by their colour, size, shape of leaves and their habitat. The visit to Iwokrama afforded the students the chance to actually see those relationships at work in the Iwokrama forest and also to collect samples for preservation.
Botanical surveys of the Iwokrama forest have found over 1, 250 species of plants but could well exceed 2, 000 species if those in the highland areas are taken into consideration.
Gomes said that the teachers of the Science department felt that while plants around St Ignatius and surrounding communities could have been used for the students to carry out the research, it was better for the students to visit Iwokrama, where “everything is in one place.”
The students and teachers observed the rainforest from the canopy walkway and also visited the Iwokrama River Lodge and Research Station at Kurupukari.
“The staff at Iwokrama welcomed us and offered us fine hospitality. They were also very kind and patient with the students, answering all of their questions,” Gomes stated.
The exercise was led by Rangers and Tour Guides at Iwokrama River Lodge and Atta Lodge (Canopy Walkway Site).
She said that the students were able to identify various species of plants.
“They would have read about Iwokrama and the plants it harbours, but we were excited to actually see the plants in their natural habitat. They gained a lot of knowledge about what it means to conserve the rainforest and were able to understand why conservation is so important, not only for plants and animals to survive, but for us humans too,” Gomes stated.
One of Iwokrama’s core values is a people centered approach to conservation and wise use of the rainforest.
The Iwokrama International Centre will continue its outreach activities, focusing on all stakeholders in society.
The Iwokrama International Centre (IIC) was established in 1996 under a joint mandate from the Government of Guyana and the Commonwealth Secretariat to manage the Iwokrama forest, a unique reserve of 371,000 hectares of rainforest “in a manner that will lead to lasting ecological, economic and social benefits to the people of Guyana and to the world in general”.
The Centre, guided by an International Board of Trustees is unique, providing a dedicated well managed and researched forest environment. The forest is zoned into a Sustainable Utilization Area (SUA) and a Wilderness Preserve (WP) in which to test the concept of a truly sustainable forest where conservation, environmental balance and economic use can be mutually reinforced.
The IIC collaborates with the Government of Guyana, the Commonwealth and other international partners and donors to develop new approaches and forest management models to enable countries with rainforests to market their ecosystem services whilst carefully managing their resources through innovative and creative conservation practices.

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