Guyana Launches Low Carbon Development Strategy
In June, Guyana’s President, Bharrat Jagdeo, launched the country’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS). The plan seeks to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and global warming by protecting Guyana’s rainforests, which still carpet roughly 80 percent of the country. In President Jagdeo’s words from the launch:
“The world is running out of time – average global temperatures are rising too fast and our planet is on a trajectory towards human catastrophe of a scale never seen before. The greenhouse gas emissions causing these temperature rises must peak by 2020 and be cut by 80 percent by 2050. It will be impossible to do this without a dramatic reduction in emissions from deforestation – which comprise about a fifth of the global total. Future generations will not forgive us if we fail to act despite knowing these facts.
The people of Guyana are willing to act – as a country where almost 80% of our territory is rainforest, we stand ready to work with others who share our view that the world needs to break the false debate which suggests that a nation must choose between national development and combating climate change. Instead we should be asking how can we forge prosperous low carbon economies where national development and combating climate change are complementary, not competing, objectives.”
The three main components of the Low Carbon Development Strategy include: 1) Investment in low carbon economic infrastructure; 2) Investment and employment in low carbon economic sectors; and 3) Investment in communities and human capital. For more information, visit www.lcds.gov.gy.
Guyana Returning to the British Birdwatching Fair
We are pleased to announce that Guyana will have an exhibit at the 2009 British Birdwatching Fair (Birdfair) at Rutland Water from August 21-23. We invite you to visit us at Marquee 4 / Booth 89, where you can learn all about Guyana’s birds, mammals, pristine rainforests, and culture from representatives from the Guyana Sustainable Tourism Initiative, the tour operator Wilderness Explorers, and the Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development.At Birdfair, Chris Collins of the Neotropical Birdclub and Iwokrama Forest Ranger, Waldyke (Wally) Prince, will be giving a presentation titled, “Birding and Conservation in the Amazing Rainforests of Guyana.” The talk will take place on Friday at 10:30 am in Lecture Marquee 1. Last year’s Guyana presentation drew a large crowd and we’re expecting the same this year so be sure to arrive early.
For more information on Birdfair, visit www.birdfair.org.uk. We look forward to seeing you all at our booth, but for those who can’t make it, please watch our Press Releases page for updates from Birdfair.
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The night will also feature updates on the USAID-Guyana Sustainable Tourism Initiative, information on what’s happening at the Guyana Tourism Authority, new tourism products in Guyana, and some of Guyana’s famous rum.
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Yupukari Village Wildlife Club Wins ECOCLUB.com 2009 Ecotourism Award
From Wild to Web, an ecotourism-based wildlife-monitoring project in Guyana’s Yupukari village was announced as a winner of the ECOCLUB.com 2009 Ecotourism Awards. The sixth annual eco-project competition had a theme of “Their Crisis, Our Communities – Progressive Change through Social Ecotourism.”
ECOCLUB member, and Guyana Sustainable Tourism Initiative Tourism Director, Judy Karwacki of Small Planet Consulting, submitted the proposal for Yupukari’s From Wild to Web project in conjunction with Rupununi Learners Incorporated (RLI), a Guyanese nonprofit corporation composed of Rupununi village residents.
The project seeks to enhance the wildlife monitoring activities of Yupukari’s Wildlife Club by providing them with dedicated laptops and cameras. Village youth will learn to digitally document field projects, make web pages, and then upload them to the existing RLI website. By adding digital documentation training, resources and implementation to Yupukari Wildlife Club field projects recently funded by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the From Wild to Web project will enhance the capacity of village youth to participate in developing local, regional, national and international conversation about the future of threatened Rupununi lands and waters.
The Yupukari Village wildlife club connects village youth to a synergistic group of learning, scientific inquiry and enterprise activities, all of which are documented in words and pictures at www.rupununilearners.org. To learn more about ECOCLUB, visit www.ecoclub.com. A press release with all the details is also posted on the Press Releases page of the website. More International Media Feature Guyana
International publications continue to write about Guyana’s pristine rainforests, wildlife and birdlife, and tourism destinations. In the April issue of Outside magazine, which announces the top 35 Adventure Trips of the Year for 2009, Guyana is featured as the Trip of the Year for South America. In a short piece titled, "Trek the Big Empty," the magazine profiles the tour operator Geographic Expeditions’ new trekking trip to Guyana. The article came about through the efforts of Michael McCrystal, who participated in a November 2007 familiarization trip.
Well- known British travel writer, John Gimlette wrote “In God’s Garden” for the April/May 2009 edition of Wanderlust, one of the UK's leading travel magazines for independent-minded and adventurous travelers. Mr. Gimlette traveled extensively throughout Guyana in late 2008 to carry out research for an upcoming travelogue based in French Guiana, Suriname, and Guyana.
Erica Gies, a freelance environmental reporter from San Francisco, wrote "Climate for Conservation," for the June 2009 issue of Américas magazine, the periodical of the Organization of American States. The article does a great job of highlighting Guyana’s fight to protect its forests for the future benefit of the planet.
And in the July 2009 issue of Off the Radar, an online magazine for adventure travelers, Kirk Smock, author of the Bradt Guyana guidebook, wrote an article on Guyana’s rainforests and the ecosystem services they offer, including ecotourism.
Also, in December 2008 and January 2009, two U.S.-based television shows, Birding Adventures and Reel Adventures, aired five episodes on birdwatching and sport fishing filmed in Guyana. Based on the success of his first trip, the host of Reel Adventures, Robert Arrington, returned in March 2009 on a trip to further explore Guyana’s sport fishing market. Mr. Arrington created and posted a short video of trip highlights on YouTube and he expects to product two more Reel Adventures shows from the footage shot on his latest trip to Guyana.
These articles and many more can be downloaded at our Guyana in the News page of the website.
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Construction is currently underway on a new visitor arrival centre for Kaieteur National Park, the home of the 741-foot Kaieteur Falls. The new centre should be completed in late 2009 and will feature an interpretation area, interactive displays, a craft store, dining areas, viewing gallery, and walkways.
Kaieteur National Park received funding for the visitor centre from Kreditanstalt fur Wiederraufbau small grants component of the Guyana Protected Area Systems, which is being funded by the German government.
The new centre is meant to improve the experience of those who come to explore Kaieteur National Park, which is best known for Kaieteur Falls, but also boasts a unique and incredibly rich biodiversity. Kaieteur National Park was established in 1929 and now covers 627 square kilometers (242 square miles). Rewa and Nappi Villages Being Promoted as New Tourism Products for Guyana
In partnership with Wilderness Explorers, we’re happy to announce that two new community tourism products are being promoted for Guyana. Visits to both places can now be booked through Wilderness Explorers, in addition to other local tour operators in Guyana.
The first, Maipaima Eco-Lodge at Nappi Village, is our featured Birding Site this month. Click the link to read about the Eco-Lodge that provides the best access to exploring the Kanuku Mountains, a mountain range that Conservation International said supports the highest biodiversity in Guyana.
Rewa Eco-Lodge and Village will also be featured in an upcoming issue of this newsletter, but until then here’s a general overview of Rewa provided by Wilderness Explorers: The Rewa River was the setting for part of the 2008 BBC series Lost Land of the Jaguar and it is pristine and rich in wildlife and birdlife. The further up the river you travel you move into extremely remote areas that are separated from human populations by rapids and waterfalls. It is in these upper reaches that visitors have the best chance of seeing Jaguar, Tapir and Giant River Otters.
Remote Rewa village is located where the Rewa River runs into the Rupununi River in the North Rupununi. The surrounding area is rainforest, mountains and oxbow lakes, all teeming with wildlife, birds and fish. In 2005, the community of about 220 people constructed the Rewa Eco-Lodge so they could establish a sustainable ecotourism business.
The Eco-Lodge is situated along the Rewa River and consists of three benabs, the largest is the kitchen and dining area and the other two comprise the sleeping areas, each with two bedrooms and a large patio with hammocks for relaxing.
Activities offered by village guides include a community tour and many nature-based options including treks through the rainforest and savannah and boat trips up the Rewa River that include birdwatching and some of the best catch-and-release sport fishing in Guyana. There is also a Harpy Eagle nest that is currently active located near the Eco-Lodge.
Neotropical Birding Club Features Guyana at Annual Meeting
At the recent Neotropical Birding Club (NBC) annual meeting, Chris Collins gave a presentation on Guyana. The talk was primarily to encourage members to book the Guyana tour that the NBC is offering for November 2009, but it also allowed Chris to share his rapidly expanding expertise on Guyana’s birds. In providing a preview of the upcoming NBC trip, Chris was able to speak about some of the regional specialties the group will target, including the Sun Parakeet, the Rio Branco Antbird, and the Hoary-throated Spinetail.
Chris, who is also leading a lecture at Birdfair on Guyana, has spent several months in Guyana photographing and researching the country’s birds, and also delivered a training program designed to enhance the guiding and conservation abilities of 16 of Guyana’s top bird guides. The training program was presented with Barry Walker of Manu Expeditions; Barry will also be a co-leader on the NBC trip to Guyana. For more on the NBC and their Guyana trip, visit www.neotropicalbirdclub.org.
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New BirdLife International Book on Important Bird Areas to Include Guyana
BirdLife International recently worked on a regional Important Bird Areas (IBAs) project in Guyana with the Guyana Amazon Tropical Birds Society (GATBS), which introduced the organization to Guyana’s amazing birds and conservation projects.
As a result, BirdLife is including Guyana in their upcoming directory of Important Bird Areas in the Americas. The publication will list all IBAs for the region in a brief country chapter that will outline the IBA program and include general information and photographs of birds, landscapes and conservation projects.
IBAs are priority areas for the conservation of globally threatened, range-restricted and congregatory birds. BirdLife data demonstrates that IBAs are also excellent indicators of biodiversity richness and are therefore important for a wide range of species. Some birds that will be featured for Guyana include the Rio Branco Antbird, Hoary-throated Spinetail, Red Siskin, Harpy Eagle, Blue-cheeked Amazon, and the Bearded Tachuri. Visit www.birdlife.org for more information on IBAs across the globe.
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Guyana Bird Guides Attend Workshop at Asa Wright in Trinidad
In the important area of guide training, the Guyana Sustainable Tourism Initiative recently sponsored the participation of two guides from Iwokrama International Centre, Wally Prince and Dexter Torres, in a bird-monitoring workshop at Asa Wright Nature Centre in Trinidad. The International Programs of the U.S. Forest Service, the Klamath Bird Observatory, and the North American Banding Council sponsored the workshop.
Workshop participants learned techniques in mist netting, banding, bird identification, aging and sexing birds, and use of point counts for monitoring populations and data analyses. The workshop also provided hands-on training to enable participants to initiate monitoring programs for their home organizations and to serve as leaders for advancing bird conservation.
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GSTI Continues to Build Relationship with American Birding Association
The Guyana Sustainable Tourism Initiative continues to build strong links with the American Birding Association (ABA) with the goal of being the host destination for the ABA International Conference in 2012. Working towards this goal and in order to create interest in Guyana among their membership, ABA has partnered with the U.S.-based tour operator Siemer and Hand and will soon be announcing an endorsed trip to Guyana. The trip will be advertised in ABA publications Birding magazine and Winging It newsletter and on their website, www.aba.org. The trip will take place in September 2010, following which ABA will publish and promote articles and the list of birds seen during the trip.
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To develop a bit of a photo theme (our featured Birding Person this month is photographer David Fernandes), for this issue’s Pick of the Flock we’re recommending our readers browse a wonderful blog that features a picture a day from Guyana’s southern Rupununi Savannah. The blog, 2009 – A Picture Each Day…, features the images of James Broscombe, who is living for a year in the Amerindian village of Aishalton.
James’ photographs do a wonderful job of capturing all aspects of Guyana, including the people, culture, flora and fauna, sprawling landscapes, and some wonderful sunsets.
Have you been to Guyana? Do you have photographs of your own that you would like to share? We’re currently putting together a photo page on www.guyanabirding.com and encourage you to send in your images so we can post them online. Please submit your photos to info@guyanabirding.com.
