| European
Tropical Forest Research Network |
THE GUIANA SHIELD INITIATIVE AS A MULTI-LEVEL STRATEGY FOR SUSTAINABLE FOREST MANAGEMENT
By Pitou van Dijck
The Guiana Shield region is among the world's most ancient geological formations and includes all of Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana as well as parts of Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil. The region is home to one of the last pristine forest areas in the world. From an environmental and biological perspective the region is characterised by an extremely diverse endemic flora that has evolved on this precambian geological formation. From an anthropological and cultural perspective, the region is the habitat of a variety of indigenous communities which depend on the ecosystem to maintain their lifestyles.
The Guiana Shield region is currently in the spotlight as one of the few areas that can be preserved before irreparable damage is done.
The overall objective of the Guiana Shield Initiative (GSI) is to promote ecologically sustainable management of the region. The initiative will focus on cooperation with local stakeholders, i.e. indigenous and other local inhabitants, local authorities, NGOs, academics, intergovernmental and international organisations and the private sector.
The initiative is made up of the following components:
The Regional Trust Fund is the mechanism by which the nations in the region may be reimbursed by the international community - through the Global Environmental Facility - for their public goods services including carbon sequestration and stocking of biodiversity. The Initiative takes a bottom-up approach by placing the conservation in the hands of the local people who may function as ecosystem managers in specified areas.
Our presentation will focus on the goals and instruments of the Initiative and particularly on the potential role of the inhabitants of the region in conserving the forest and the public goods it provides for the region and indeed the entire world. Model contracts will be studied as a means for integrating services of local inhabitants into the Initiative.
Further information:
Dr Pitou van Dijck
CEDLA
Keizersgracht 395/397
1016 EK Amsterdam
The Netherlands
E-mail: vandyck@cedla.uva.nl