Georgetown: The Iwokrama International Centre for Rain Forest Conservation and Development is responsible for the management of almost one million acres of tropical forest that was gifted to the world by the Government of Guyana to demonstrate its commitment to climate change mitigation and sustainable forest management.
Iwokrama is in the centre of one of the four last remaining intact tropical forest ecosytems in the world, the Guiana Shield, and is a national laboratory for sustainable forest management. Iwokrama also represents an important transition zone in rainfall, landforms, human histories and biological communities.
Under the theme “Forests and Energy”, this year’s global celebration of forests provides a platform to raise awareness of the importance of all types of woodlands and trees and celebrate the ways in which the forests sustain and protect us by highlighting the importance of wood energy in improving people's lives and powering sustainable development and mitigating climate change.
International Day of Forests was established on the 21st day of March, by resolution of the United Nations General Assembly on November 28, 2012.
An estimated 45 percent of all global renewable energy of the world is provided by wood (27 percent of total primary energy supply in Africa, 13 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean and 5 percent in Asia and Oceania).
The Iwokrama forest has an array of diverse forest types which supports a fantastic array of biodiversity. Iwokrama’s business development also includes tourism, training services and an FSC certified sustainable forestry operation. As we look towards enhancing our road towards the Green Economy, it must be recognized that sustainable forest management linked with technological and other innovations are key to increasing the role of forests as a major source of renewable energy.
Iwokrama joins the world in celebrating this momentous occasion and achievement and urge everyone to do your part in protecting our forest and its resources.
About Iwokrama
The 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 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”.
The Centre, guided by an international Board of Trustees is unique, 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.
Iwokrama brings together:
• 20 local communities (approximately 7,000 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 ground breaking research into the impacts of climate change on the forest and measuring the scope and value of its ecosystem services; and
• A portfolio of sustainably managed and certified business models using innovative governance systems which include 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 practice, 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.
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