Environmental organizations in the country have formed an alliance to increase knowledge about climate change and its effects on Guyana.

A press release from Conservation International (CI) stated that the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)-Guianas, the Iwokrama International Centre, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Climate Unit (NCU), the Guyana Citizens Initiative, the Guyana Marine Turtle Conservation Society along with CI have agreed to work jointly on raising awareness about climate change in Guyana.

The release said that the group finalized a steering committee on Wednesday and plans to launch a learning website next month. “They will then intensify activities to create greater awareness about climate change and its possible impact on Guyana”, the statement said.

Executive Director of CI, Dr David Singh in a comment noted that climate change poses the single greatest human-induced threat to the future of human society as we know it. If, for no other reason, this is why we must work to educate, to make aware, and to communicate with the Guyanese community, the threats and the potential opportunities that climate change brings to the country, he said. WWF-Guianas Country Manager, Dr Patrick Williams was quoted as saying that “there is overwhelming scientific evidence that the world’s climate is changing to the detriment of humankind”, while the NCU said that climate change presents itself as a real and serious threat to Guyana that requires urgent actions and coordinated efforts from the entire spectrum of Guyanese society.

The statement further said that in Guyana most of the population has heard the term climate change and global warming but very few know anything about this. It said that recently CI commissioned a survey to determine attitudes, knowledge and awareness about conservation issues. “The preliminary results of this survey clearly highlighted the limited knowledge and awareness of people, and indicated the need for more effort to be spent, especially in the coastal regions on raising the level of awareness, communicating about and educating the population on issues such as climate change. In addition to the need for more information, the major players in this arena have recognized the importance of approaching the climate change issue with a collective voice to ensure a unified message and to avoid duplication of efforts”, the statement added.

It said that the project aims to unify the messages disseminated by environmental partners, scale up the impact these messages can have by maximizing the use of collective budgets and work plans and to complement existing plans.