CI to seek bigger Essequibo conservation area

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article?id=56529478
CI to seek bigger Essequibo conservation area
By Nicosia Smith
Stabroek News, Monday, September 24th 2007

Senior Economist at CI Dr Richard Rice, who brought the concept to
Guyana, said that the problem that conservationists face is that "if
destruction pays and conservation doesn't," then the first will always
win over the latter

Conservation International (CI) Guyana since establishing the Upper
Essequibo Conservation Concession (UECC) five years ago has reported
strong partnerships with communities nearby and announced plans to seek
an extension of the concession.

Celebrating the fifth year anniversary at Cara Lodge on Friday night
were Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, other government officials, members
from CI Washington office and non-governmental organizations.

On July 17, 2002, Conservation International signed a 30-year lease
with the Guyana Forestry Commission for the management of the Upper
Essequibo Conservation Concession - an area of approximately 200,000
acres of pristine rainforests in a watershed area within the forestry
zone in the upper Essequibo River.

According to Manager Eustace Alexander of Conservation Science at CI
Guyana, within the next five years CI plans to implement new
initiatives to leverage new sources of funding and petition the
government for geographic expansion of the present conservation
concession. They also plan to ask for the inclusion of the site into
the legally protected area when the National Protected Areas System
becomes enacted.

In addition, CI also intends to explore a greater variety of
partnership arrangements, particularly with Guyana's private sector and
multinational developmental agencies.

Already a corporate sponsor is on board with the concession - Save Your
World Corporation which makes personal care products in the United
States. Save Your World President Scott Cecil was present to mark the
five-year anniversary.

The communities closest to the site are Apoteri (50 miles away); Rewa
(70 miles away) and CrashWater (100 miles away).

These communities are dependent upon the forest and its resources for
their livelihoods, noted Alexander, since the communities "would like
to secure their forests from the perils of development (e.g. logging)
and still achieve socio-economic development."

In the absence of National Protected Areas legislation, the purpose of
the conservation concession is to conserve pristine forests, explained
Alexander, before it is subjected to some of the impacts of national
development, e.g. commercial logging.

Because of this, the conservation science manager indicated that the
communities have supported the concept of the conservation concession,
which will keep the trees standing and will conserve their food
resources. In addition, it will allow for the maintenance of
traditional practices and still provide the communities with
socio-economic benefits, he said.

"Though the biodiversity of the site is not yet fully understood, there
are numerous species of animals and plants, some of which are either
endemic to Guyana or globally endangered," according to Alexander,
noting animals like the Giant River Otter, Giant Armadillo and Black
Caiman which are found at the concession.

The concession allowed for the implementation of a Voluntary Community
Invest-ment Fund (VCIF) to provide socio-economic development to the
three stakeholder communities.

To date, funds disbursed under the VCIF have established a sheep and
mutton production project for Apoteri, constructed an eco-lodge for
Rewa and provided CrashWater with a sewing and craft centre.

Conservation International Guyana also built the local capacity of
residents for their active involvement in site management.

For example, four residents of the three communities were sponsored to
attend the Ranger Training Programme at the Iwokrama Research and
Training Centre, Alexander said.

These four residents after graduation were recruited by CI-Guyana and
at present they form the core-team, which manages the field base at
Apoteri and routinely monitor the site to ensure its biological
integrity is not being jeopardized.

It was also noted that because of Apoteri's strategic geographical
location, CI Guyana has entered into a rental agreement with the
village council for use of the Apoteri Guesthouse as the field base to
support activities at the site and in the area.

GFC regulations

Because the concession is governed by regulations of the GFC, its
implementation followed procedures similar to those of a commercial
timber concession.

These included: Applying to the Guyana Forestry Commission for a State
Forest Exploratory Permit (The application was submitted in May 2000
and approved five months later).

A Forest Resources Management Plan also had to be prepared guided by
feedback from stakeholders like the Regional Advisory Committee and the
GFC during consultations and meetings; and an inventory of commercial
timber species was also done. At the time of this project's
implementation conservation concessions and perhaps biodiversity
conservation as a whole, said Alexander, "were relatively new concepts
to Guyana."

As such, CI Guyana said it was compelled to follow a few procedures
that are considered unique - since such procedures are not normally
followed by loggers. For example, local lawyers were hired to conduct
legal analyses to determine any legal issues that might negatively
affect the project; and initial consultation with all stakeholders
(local, regional and national) to evaluate the feasibility of the idea.

Following this, a Draft Forest Management Plan was then prepared and
distributed to all stakeholders for their review and feedback before
being finalized, said Alexander.

Another unique approach was the determination of annual royalty fees,
since with logging concessions annual royalty fees are determined by
information on trees harvested per year. But in the case of the
conservation concession the royalty fees being paid by CI Guyana to the
GFC were determined by negotiation.

Additionally, because the conservation concession is not expected to
impact the environment the need for an Environmental Impact Assessment
was nullified.

For the next five years, CI Guyana will again engage with all
stakeholders to finalize the forest resources management plan.

Guyana Forestry Commis-sioner James Singh in remarks said that the GFC
is not only interested in revenue collection from activities like
logging and sawmilling, but is also committed to conservation.

Singh noted that over the five years the collaboration with CI has been
excellent and fruitful and there is no reason to believe that the
future will be any different. (Every five years CI has to submit a
management plan to the GFC.)

Senior Economist at CI Dr Richard Rice, who brought the concept to
Guyana, said that the problem that conservationists face is that "if
destruction pays and conservation doesn't," then the first will always
win over the latter. Often, he noted, there are few ways to directly
benefit from conservation, but the conservation concession model
provides a level playing field.

He also mentioned that the establishment of the concession in Guyana
paved the way for similar conservation concession agreements in Kenya,
the Solomon Islands, China, Peru, Ecuador, Papua New Guinea and in the
Congo. Some of the agreements in these countries have been completed,
while others are being processed.