News Release 13 March 2006

Managing the Health and Wealth of our Rainforest

Iwokrama International Centre, Georgetown, Guyana – March 13, 2006.

Managing the health and wealth of our rainforests
Health and vitality applies not only to humans but also to trees and plants, wildlife and our natural landscape itself. The Iwokrama International Rain Forest Programme is all about promoting the well-being of a 3,710 sq km area of tropical rainforest and the people who live in it.

As a member of the Commonwealth, Guyana receives critical assistance to protect this designated area and to demonstrate best practice in forest management. The Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation supports the position of Director-General of the Iwokrama International Centre and provides long and short term experts to work with Iwokrama in developing appropriate business ventures.

One of these experts is Ken Rodney who took up his two year position in May 2004. Ken has spent most of the last 35 years in tropical rainforest management activities. Over this time he has been involved in a broad range of disciplines including forest inventory, silviculture (the growing and tending of trees), harvest planning and sawmilling.  His specific areas of expertise are project management, forest management planning and forest inventories.

“The aim of the programme is to demonstrate how tropical forests can provide economic, social and cultural benefits without destroying biodiversity” he explained. “The challenge is therefore to balance conservation with sustainable, commercial-scale activities. What attracted me to this position was the opportunity to help develop model forest management systems which can be applied around the world.” 

On a day to day basis, Ken is closely involved in all aspects of forest management. These include quantifying and mapping forest resources, assessing the environmental and social impact of potential activities, developing road networks, planning harvests that reduce the impact of logging and implementing silvicultural programmes. “At the same time we are continuously monitoring and testing our assumptions and decisions to ensure optimum sustainability of resources and improve our management policies and practices.”

Efforts have focused on finalising Iwokrama’s Sustainable Forest Management Plan (SFMP) and preparations for an international invitation to tender to find a private sector partner.  Ongoing projects include a forest inventory; the compilation and analysis of data; GIS mapping; and technical-economical feasibility studies on the supply of wood, the development of a saw mill, marketing, finance and the environmental impact of commercial activities.

Much progress has been made in the past year. Iwokrama now has a state-of-the-art programme for processing inventory data, for planning harvesting and for mapping the location of trees, roads and skid trails. Analysis and mapping activities have been completed for the first trial management unit, a 600 hectare block.  An inventory of standing stock, complete with tree location maps, has been prepared for timber sale negotiation purposes.

Ken has assisted with the development of the Fairview Village collaborative agreement with regard to the village's land claim within the Iwokrama Forest.  This has included the preparation of maps and area summaries for the proposed land claim. He has assisting the North Rupununi District Development Board (NRDDB) with their newly assigned forest harvesting concession; providing advice on sustainable forest management procedures and reviewing their strategic operating plan and potential third party log sale agreements.

In September of 2005 The Soil Association, the Woodmark certification auditors, carried out their pre-assessment of Iwokrama's forest management activities, which included the social impact of these.  The pre-assessment report has highlighted areas that Iwokrama needs to improve or correct prior to the final assessment, which will not proceed until harvesting operations are underway and on-going.

We expect to finalize the SFMP this year and obtain Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) approval to initiate harvesting operations.  Iwokrama has signed a Memorandum of Agreement with a prospective joint-venture partner to implement the harvesting plan.  If all goes according to schedule, Iwokrama will begin its sustainable harvesting operation by September 2006.

One of Kens’ duties has been to develop timber harvesting cost scenarios to assist Iwokrama’s Management Committee and Board of Trustees in the negotiation process.   The long-term goal is to create a joint-venture partnership with equitable profit sharing.  Ken has also assisted in the preparation of a "Timber Prospectus".

“One of the most crucial forest management questions facing Guyana today is how to create an export market by developing forest products that are really in demand” said Ken. “This entails careful consideration of which species to utilize and an emphasis on quality control and reliability of supply. It is worth noting that recent studies indicate that the Iwokrama Forest has a much higher timber value than previously thought, in terms of the variety and the volume of commercial species.”

Meanwhile, the Iwokrama Rainforest Programme continues to expand its eco-tourism potential. The tourist facility at the canopy walk way concession site was completed in last summer.