About IwokramaThe 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 the 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”. HRH The Prince of Wales is its Patron.
The Centre, guided by an international Board of Trustees, is unique in 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 reinforcing. 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.
The Centre’s work programmes include sustainable business development (sustainable forestry and ecotourism, learning services and ESS), research and science, community relations, conservation and monitoring amongst others.
Iwokrama brings together:
- 20 local communities (approximately 8,000 people) who are shareholders and participants in the IIC’s sustainable timber, tourism, research operations and forest management activities through complex co-management and benefit-sharing arrangements;
- Scientists and researchers engaged in groundbreaking research into the impacts of climate change on the forest and measuring the scope and value of its ecosystem services;
- A portfolio of sustainably managed and certified business models using innovative governance systems which include the participation of the private and public sectors and the local communities, earning income from the forest and its natural assets whilst employing international social, environmental and economic best practices, whilst still keeping abreast of the ever-changing thinking on funding for environmental projects in the face of climate change and the perennial scarcity of international finance.
This alliance and the Centre’s work programmes are committed to showing how a rain forest can be used for real sustainability, real climate change protection and real community benefit.
For further details about the Iwokrama International Centre please visit
www.iwokrama.org ,
www.iwokramariverlodge.com or contact Dane Gobin, Chief Executive Officer at
dgobin@iwokrama.org.
