 Aerial view of Kaieteur Falls, Guyana. Photo © Conservation International/John Martin. |
The nation of Guyana sports some of South America’s most intact and least-imperiled rainforests, and a new $8.5 million trust fund hopes to keep it that way. The Guyanese government has teamed up with Germany and Conservation International (CI) to create a long-term trust fund to manage the country’s protected areas system (PAS).
“Guyana is globally recognized for its unique biodiversity and for having one of the lowest deforestation rates in the developing world,” Robert M. Persaud, Guyana’s Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment, said in a press release. “We have recently made significant strides in establishing a national protected areas system as a tool to conserve this natural heritage, while at the same time contributing to our sustainable development.
Currently, nearly 9 percent of Guyana’s landmass is under protection, including two new parks created last year: the Kanuku Mountain Protected Area and the Shell Beach Protected Area. Seventy-six percent of Guyana is forested, and astoundingly, over half of this is covered in primary forest.
 Giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla). Photo: © Pete Oxford/iLCP. |
 Giant leaf frog (Phyllomedusa bicolor), Iwokrama Reserve. Photo: © Pete Oxford/iLCP. |
 Aerial View of Rainforest, Iwokrama Reserve. Photo: © Pete Oxford/iLCP. |
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