THE RARE WILDLIFE AREA IS UNDER TREAT OF ILLEGAL LOGGING AND MINING

What you you imagine when you think of Guyana ? My first thought would be the never ending wildlife setting and the beautiful and thrilling rainforest landscape. It would be like jumping into the survival adventure and hoping to get out of it with the best memories ever. Guyana is more than a country with sacred travel goals, it is almost like forgotten jungle city that embraces you when you come. When I first read about the Kanuku Mountains, I knew I have to go there. The name itself means the forest in local Wapishana language and actually narrates us about the high value of biodiversity over there.

There are 4 mountain ranges in Guyana and there are: Kanuku Mountains, Acaria, Imataka and Pakaraima mountains. Each of them has specific attributes but it seems that Kanuku touched the archaic beauty of Planet Earth. This range that is located in the soul of Guyana´s tropical savannahs is the mountain covered with rain forest and the samples of real biological vibrations and evolutions. The geographical and climate layers make the area pretty much original, hidden and complex. You can see how the dark forests are being replaced with beige savannah, grumpy wetlands and the hybrid habitats that enhance the development of different living forms. Just for comparison, only here is the world highest record in bat diversity, about 89 species while almost 350 species of bird, and not to mention some of the more exclusive animals like Giant River Otter, Harpy Eagle, Giant Anteater, Black Caiman and Giant River Turtle. If we go to the anthropological background, there are indigenous communities of Macushi and Wapishana people that live on and for the mountains, keeping their culture, heritage and life dust inside the mountain safety. They build about 21 local communities that are offering the mixed culture, some kind of collage among coastal habits, Brazilian cultural approach influenced by western culture.

The Rupununi region of the southwestern Guyana is also the big administrative region ( one of 10 regions ) this country that kisses the northern coasts of South America and rich green Guiana Shield. It is something like paradise of biodiversity of our world that is dying and 70% of all mammals are actually here like also 53% of the global populations of birds. The 1,577 special plants are also spotted here.

 The Kanuku mountains are the guardians of our nature and oxygen. The green lungs are helping our Planet to deal with all risks and to our mankind to avoid further outcome of damaged atmosphere. This area consists of 99% forests and of 1% of savannah. According to some statistic, Guyana´s total forested area is storing about 151-242 million tons of carbon and here you can find mixed forest with swamp and cloud forest but also deciduous forests and liana forests. Some of those are subcategorised and divided int microhabitat and levels.

The main problem for our precious land of wonders is the continued disfiguring of biohabitat and aggressive industrialisation. The rise of population means the cleaning of protected area and turning it into the urban projection plan and communities of human beings. At the end, this means the tragic los of endangered or vulnerable species and the endemic plants that might be gone in the wind.

In spite of fact that the Government of Guyana is working hard of preventing and preempting the destabilisation of wildlife area and natural rich complex, there are reports that illegal mining and logging is occurring all over the protected range. It is growing in the shadow of very confident eco policy. The Natural Resources Ministry and the Protected Areas Commission are more than concerned over the number of information that illegal anti-nature activities are still on going especially in Kaieteur National Park, Iwokrama, Kanuku Mountains, Shell Beach, and the Kanashen Amerindian Protected Areas.

The authorised official bodies are trying to monitor the certain protected areas and also to dismantle the illegal and harming activities but still it is not easy. Some people think of the nature well being and others are busy with greed and making money, without thinking of regulations and the future. This land is not only authentic and unique but rare with wildlife beauty and the catalog of all living species. Maybe this is the last wonderful garden of the Planet Earth, before is all ruined by human hands. This is why the legal Acts should encourage the ecological sustainability and discourage the attempts of wildlife criminals and nature abusers to hunt the gold in the shadow of the public oath to protect the ancestors land.

The next very serious issue is gold mining and gold digging with the current price explosion on the global market. It seems that Guyana is not sure which direction is the right one. They want to keep on green logic and protect the rain forest basin but also they are obsessed with deforestation and possibility to sort it money question. Gold is the country’s main export profitability and it is allowed in 6 main districts: the Berbice and Rupunini on the south while the northwest districts are Potaro, Mazaruni, Cuyuni, and Northwest. The illegal mining is there where is not the official site for work ( illegal site on the protected area like KMPA) and also not issued the proper permit. The illegal mining is not only in the Kanuku zone but also in Micobie, along the Potato River, Cuyuni and the Essequibo River and according to the study from Inside the Crime Organisation: “Gold mining licences in Guyana are cheap, renewed automatically, and concentrated among a small number of people. In many cases, licensed properties are sublet to small- and medium-scale miners for a fee, usually 10 percent of gold mined. The large mining blocks don’t mine themselves. They sublet their concessions to small miners. However, this implies environmental damage beyond deforestation. Small-scale miners use mercury to extract gold, increasing mercury contamination. Gold is mostly extracted by Guyanese and Brazilian miners working close to the Venezuelan and Brazilian borders. These miners use excavators to clear land on the banks of rivers and engage in dredging activities. Miners also dig tunnels to extract gold, fleeing the site if authorities get too close. Guyanese gold is commercialized through a state-owned company called the Guyana Gold Board (GGB). The GGB has around 12 licensed agents that are permitted by law to buy, sell, and export gold. These brokers transport and refine the metal. It then makes its way to international markets, above all to Canada, the United Arab Emirates, Belgium, Switzerland, and the United States. Monitoring mining operations for irregularities in Guyana is a challenge due to a lack of state presence.“

This must be changed for a better, especially if the country has a will to work on its own green strategy. The beauty of diversity could be so easily lost in the golden greed and egoism of the civilisation to grab all what doesn’t own. The legal monitoring must be coordinated and controlled as well as the legal punishment, when the damage is done. Once when the nature is harmed or original tribes and wildlife is attacked for the hand full of dirty dollars, you are late to save the world around you, the drop of the ocean or the mountain wind. When we are all too late, we might not be able to eat money that we collected or to breath in technology that we produced. If we have luck, we will be only there to admit that we all failed like the fools that never protected what we had.