One of this country’s great natural treasures is not even appreciated by a majority of its inhabitants. In fact many of them would stare in blank incomprehension if the name Iwokrama were to be mentioned, and even if they had heard of it, they probably would have little idea about where it is located. It is not that the Centre which manages the Iwokrama rainforest reserve has not attempted to educate the general public on its purpose and activities, it is just that this particular conservation area has not yet embedded itself in the Guyanese psyche in the same way as has happened in the case of Kaieteur Falls. For all of that there are some people one wished did not know about it.
The Iwokrama International Centre for Rain Forest Conservation and Development, to give it its full title, had its origins in an offer by then President Desmond Hoyte to the 1989 Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit in Malaysia to set aside 371,000 hectares of virgin rainforest here to explore sustainable logging and related matters. The forest is divided into a Wilderness Preserve, which is left in its pristine state, and a Sustainable Utilization Area which is intended to establish what constitutes a truly sustainable forest.
If the purpose of Iwokrama is explained to the average person, they would probably consider it a good idea. But there are those among us who have other perceptions, especially some miners and loggers, who have notoriously little respect for our natural heritage, as their depredations in parts of the interior bear witness. Although Iwokrama is protected by law, that has not deterred them from illegally invading the reserve along with hunters, fishers and even shopkeepers.
Earlier last year the Iwokrama Centre had expressed alarm at the “proliferation of illegal activities” in its forest. In May its staff along with wardens attached to the Ministry of Natural Resources and the police had carried out raids during which they found camps with several 4-inch dredges that had caused considerable damage to the forest floor. The Centre had described this as representing a “marked increase in intensity from the usual one-man operation using metal detectors and a spade …” It was of the view that this increase had occurred because the perpetrators were taking advantage of the restrictions and lockdown protocols associated with preventing the spread of the coronavirus.
It is not as if for ordinary Guyanese the penalties for contravening the Iwokrama Act are inconsequential, but it must be said that for a gold miner they may arguably not constitute much of a deterrent. It is true that in September 2019 a miner had been arrested for illegally mining in the Iwokrama forest, and that the DPP had advised that the person should be charged. The odd arrest, however, will probably not make much impact on the problem, as evidenced by what happened a year later, when an inter-agency team came under gunfire from miners, and they only managed to hold one of the perpetrators.
The Centre reported that the man is the son of a prominent businessman in the North Rupununi and that he was placed before the court. It must be presumed that the miners involved in the shooting incident felt a certain confidence they had no reason to fear any interruption of their operations by officialdom, and that they could act with impunity.
Fast forward to this year when earlier this month several camps and a shop were found on the fringes of the Iwokrama forest by wardens from the Natural Resources Ministry, in conjunction with members of the Geology and Mines Commission, the Forestry Commission and the Police Force. Once again the Centre said that the Covid-19 restriction period had led to a reduction in monitoring capacity, and as a consequence trees were being felled and small dredges brought in for the extraction of gold. This, it said, was creating huge gaps in the forest. The camps and shop which were removed were obviously intended to support the miners, and suggest a level of permanence, which defeats the whole purpose of the reserve.
The Minister under whose portfolio Iwokrama falls is Mr Vickram Bharrat. He is responsible for Natural Resources, and it seems something of a contradiction that on the one hand he should be trying to promote extractive industries, and on the other, preserve Guyana’s protected areas from the depredations of these kinds of activities. Be that as it may, in relation to Iwokrama he said that it was bankrupt and was existing on a government subsidy. He put this down to the failure by the Coalition government to properly constitute the Board, which was in consequence unable to access donor funding.
He is, of course, being disingenuous. The forest reserve has never managed to create a viable financial model, and that applies throughout the period of the earlier PPP/C administration as well as under the PNC, although from time to time some donor funds were made available. However, these were always insufficient to sustain it in the longer term. In addition, as far as the Board is concerned, when previously in office, this government was not above interfering in appointments. One only hopes that his ministry is prepared to look this time around with generosity on the Centre and its interdiction activities, considering what it is lavishing on hinterland roads.
And roads, it might be noted, are a threat to forests in their own right, often facilitating as they do human invasions on the grand scale. Where Iwokrama is concerned, however, there is only one throughway which matters, and that is the Georgetown to Lethem road which slices right through the reserve. At the moment that is not such a major problem, since it is in such a poor state with portions impassable in the rainy season, that traffic levels are relatively low. That, however, is likely to change in due course.
As we reported at the end of last year the Caribbean Development Bank, along with the UK and Guyana governments are to upgrade the 121 kilometres of road between Linden and Mabura Hill. The CDB has said that this is the first phase of a larger plan to develop a transportation corridor from Georgetown to Lethem, thereby connecting Guyana’s capital with northern Brazil. It should be remembered that it would be cheaper for our southern neighbour to supply its northern states through Guyana, than under the internal arrangements which obtain at present. When the road goes through to Lethem, therefore, what we have to envisage are endless container lorries thundering through the Iwokrama forest frightening away the wildlife and defiling the whole notion of rainforest conservation.
There are other problems with roads in forest areas as Brazil has discovered in the case of the Amazon. As mentioned earlier, human settlement follows roads, destroying the environment, and even if it were possible to prevent this along the portion of the road bisecting Iwokrama itself, it would occur on either side. While the Essequibo River forms its boundary to the north, this would not be sufficient to stop the penetration, and in any case it presumably would be bridged. A road would give access to all kinds of people, not just from the coast but also from Brazil, including miners, and policing the reserve itself would become a challenge of no small proportions. Why the powers-that-be have always wanted a road, rather than a railway which would be less intrusive, has never been explained.
It is true that the CDB has given the assurance that the road project from Linden to Mabura Hill will include social safeguards as well as environmental protections to preserve the ecosystem. We will therefore have the opportunity to discover just how successful those are, before further sections are undertaken.
For the moment, however, the Centre’s main issue is with the miners and loggers, et al, and where this is concerned it has clearly recognised that penalties for transgressing the Iwokrama Act are of no use if you don’t catch the culprits first. Consistent interdiction after all is the best form of protection. We reported earlier this month that in conjunction with the various regulatory agencies the Centre would step up monitoring and enforcement in order to stop mining and other incursions. In addition it was said to have announced a reward for information leading to the arrest and successful prosecution of those engaged in illegal activities in the forest. Since no figure was given, it might be thought that this would not be a particularly fruitful approach.
The Centre also said it was installing cameras in certain areas, and had acquired a drone with facial recognition software for aerial monitoring. Boat traffic too will be monitored by a “strategically placed” station.
The Iwokrama Rain Forest Conservation area is part of the natural heritage of all Guyanese, that in so many ways can contribute to our understanding of the well-endowed part of the planet we have been bequeathed, and at the same time add critical data to the world’s knowledge pool. We can do without greedy intruders destroying that which is not theirs to ravage, but which belongs to all of us.
