Konashen to be declared a National Protected Area

Part of the celebratory gathering at Konashen (PAC photo)

A historic signing of an agreement between the Protected Areas Commis-sion (PAC) and the Village Council of Konashen in Region Nine  on 7th July has paved the way for the declaration of Guyana’s first Amerindian Protected Area under the National Protected Areas System.

Konashen is Guyana’s southernmost Amerindian village and it is located in the Upper Takutu-Upper-Essequibo on the border with Brazil, according to a media release from PAC. In 2004, Konashen was granted Absolute Title to the entire Konashen Indigenous District, an area of 648,567.2 hectares (3% of Guyana’s land mass) of relatively intact forests, rich in biodiversity and ecosystems, and containing the head waters of the Essequibo River.

In 2007, according to the PAC release, the residents declared their land as the Konashen Community Owned Conservation Area (KCOCA) under the Amerindian Act, dedicating it