What is Iwokrama?
The Iwokrama Reserve is 370,000 hectares of pristine tropical forest in Guyana. It lies at the heart of the Guiana Shield, one of only four remaining rainforest regions in the world. It was given as a gift to the Commonwealth in 1989 for the purpose of research into global warming and sea level rise. Administered by an international board of trustees, the Iwokrama Reserve shows how tropical forests can be conserved and sustainably managed to provide ecological, social and economic benefits for the local communities and for Guyana and the wider world. The Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development (IIC) was established in 1996. Its exemplary track record of research and international governance make it ideally placed to form the bridge between the conservation of forest canopies and capital markets. The IIC works in close partnership with the 16 local communities (with a total population of about 7000 people within the Reserve and in the surrounding areas)
