Stakeholders in the North Rupununi Wetlands project on Tuesday took the first step towards identifying hindrances and coming up with programmes to preserve and sustainably manage the rich ecosystem found there.

This is being done through an initiative titled the North Rupununi Adaptive Management Plan (NRAMP), which seeks to take the three-year old Wetlands Project forward. This project is being done with funding from the Darwin Initiative and seeks to manage in a sustainable way the ecology found in the wetlands and to address the economic concerns of residents through sustainable use of that ecosystem.

At a workshop held at the University of Guyana’s Centre for the Study of Biological Diversity, Turkeyen, on Tuesday, the stakeholders discussed the boundaries of the wetland area, the important agencies and their roles and the threats to these important wetlands and solutions to these management problems. Organised by the North Rupununi Wetlands Project team, the workshop aimed to produce a press release on the way forward and to understand the impact the NRAMP process is having.

At the workshop, the attendees broke up into three working groups to discuss three broad themes: the North Rupununi Wetlands and the boundaries that define them; the stakeholders of the North Rupununi Wetlands and their relationship to the wetlands; and relevant management initiatives related to the North Rupununi Wetlands, such as fisheries management, the Giant River Turtle and the Black Caiman.

Indranee Roopsind and Lakeram Haynes gave a review of the project before the participants broke into groups.

Represented at the workshop were the North Rupununi District Development Board; WWF, Conservation International; the Iwokrama International Centre; the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC); the Environmental Protection Agency (GFC); the University of Guyana; Piyak