Guyana partnering with Surinamese agencies to strengthen protected areas

Oct 06, 2018 News

Minister of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs, Sydney Allicock and representatives from agencies in the Guiana Shield.

The Protected Areas Commission of Guyana (PAC) is partnering with French Guiana Amazonian Park, the Ministry of Planning, Land and Forest Management and Ministry of Regional Development, Suriname on a project entitled, RENFORESAP “Strengthening the network of Protected Areas in the Guiana Shield and their contributions to sustainable development in respect of local cultures, values and lifestyles”.

This is according to a press release from the Department of Environment, Ministry of the Presidency. The three Guianas face common and sometimes interconnected threats to their biodiversity, and continue to grapple with issues around land allocation, mining, watershed management and indigenous rights issues.

In facing these issues, each country has developed a suite of different, but potentially complementary, tools and approaches. To this end, a project launch has been planned for October 1-3, 2018 in Paramaribo, Suriname.

This three-day event will bring together stakeholders from the three countries as well as other global partners. The official programme will be launched on October 1, with presentations and speeches by Vice President and Minister of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs, Sydney Allicock, French Ambassador to Suriname, Guyana and CARICOM, Antoine Joly, and Minister of Regional Development of Suriname, Edgar Dikan.

On October 2, an inception workshop will be held to discuss and deliberate on the proposed actions for implementation during the project cycle. The event will conclude on October 3 with a field trip to the Mangrove Project at Weg naar Zee in Suriname.

The RENFORESAP Project will provide a unique opportunity for stakeholders to explore shared and coordinated action between protected areas and forested lands across the Guiana Shield that can contribute to the maintenance of this ecosystem of global importance.

The project runs for three years, bringing together the different managers of protected areas in the region, as well as international organizations of nature conservation working in the region such as, but not limited to, Conservation International, WWF Guianas and the Frankfurt Zoological Society and an international organisation working on Indigenous Peoples’ livelihoods improvement.

The implementation will be coordinated alternatively among Cayenne, Paramaribo and Georgetown with the employment of a Project Manager, who will be posted in the three different countries alternatively.

Seventy-five percent of the funding for the project is provided by European Funds through the European Regional Development Fund in the frame of the INTERREG – Amazonia Cooperation Programme.