The Guyana Protected Areas Trust (PAT) has signed an agreement for the management of its endowment funds.
A release from PAT said that the agreement was signed on May 3rd with the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund (CBF) which will manage and invest Endowment Funds for Guyana and make annual payments to PAT to support its mandate.
The release from PAT said that this is the 10th such agreement that CBF has signed.
PAT is a body corporate established under the Protected Areas Act of 2011, the release said, and provides cofinancing for the management of the Guyana’s National Protected Areas System, principally via the Protected Areas Commission (PAC). The release noted that the National Protected Area System currently covers 8.5% of Guyana’s terrestrial space in five protected areas Kanuku Mountains Protected Area (KMPA) in the Rupununi; Shell Beach Protected Area (SBPA) in the coastal north west region; Kanashen Amerindian Protected Area (KAPA) in southern Guyana, a community owned protected area and Guyana’s largest protected areas; Kaieteur National Park; Iwokrama Rain Forests; and four urban parks. PAT began operations in 2014 and has, since 2017, provided resources to support the management of the KMPA, SBPA, and KAPA, the release said.
During the signing ceremony in the Boardroom of the PAC, Chair of PAT’s Board of Trustees, Curtis Bernard said that the work towards the partnership agreement started in February 2020. He added that the agreement was timely and would provide well needed resources for effective management of protected areas in Guyana.
The release said that CBF is an umbrella fund with a flexible structure to implement innovative solutions for resource mobilization. Currently, the CBF manages about US$125 million through its Conservation Finance and the Climate Change: Ecosystem based Adaptation Programmes.
