Government yesterday announced that regulations for the management of Guyana’s wildlife trade are completed and will soon be gazetted.
This paves the way for the resumption of the wildlife trade, which has been suspended for over a year now.
“The new regulations will govern all aspects of hunting, trapping, trade, protection, conservation, management and sustainable use of wildlife in Guyana. Specifically, it will provide a legal framework for conservation and management of all species of wildlife in Guyana; conservation, preservation, management and protection of Guyana’s biodiversity, and licensing and decisions which support the principles of transparency and justice in the management and conservation of wildlife in Guyana,” Minister of State Joseph Harmon said at his post-Cabinet media briefing yesterday.
Passed on August 9th, 2016, the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act was assented to by President David Granger in October of that year. The legislation aims to satisfy international conventions pertaining to the import and export of wildlife and provide a regulatory framework to bring Guyana into compliance with international standards and best practices.
Last year April, the PPP/C had called on the government to make efforts to immediately enable the reopening of the wildlife trade.
It had said a number of persons were being negatively affected by the continuing suspension of the trade.
Among other things, the Act provides for the establishment of the Guyana Wildlife Conservation and Management Commission, which would take responsibility for managing the country’s compliance with the provisions of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which has been ratified by Guyana.
