The Guyana newsletter - Issue 11 (June to October 2022) is now online and offers a concise overview of recent SWM Programme activities in Guyana. 

This latest issue includes an exciting interview with Derrik David (SRCS’s Senior Ranger for the turtle project in Sand Creek Village) and highlights events such as the wild meat workshop held with coastal traders and hunters, the launch of the Guyana One Health Platform, the development of the Rupununi River Turtle Management Plan, as well as information on the recently launched SWM Guyana Legal Hub.

Enjoy your reading!

The Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programme's focus on empowering women is resulting in improved livelihoods and better protected environments. Discover the inspiring story of three women, Susan George, Flora Gomez and Kim Spencer, who are contributing daily to the SWM Programme in Guyana success.

The SWM Programme has developed a series of innovative social safeguards to encourage women and men’s active participation in community decisions. In our projects, such as in Guyana, we aim to improve women’s access to resources and services. This will reduce the gender gap between women and men, where necessary, and improve wildlife management and food security for all.

• Susan George, Empowering women through sustainable wildlife management, available in English
• Flora Gomes, Empowering women through sustainable wildlife management, available in English
• Empowering women through sustainable wildlife management: Meet Kim Spencer, available in English

Giant river otters, anteaters and red siskins are some of the incredible animals found in the North Rupununi. This video presents the work of six young wildlife clubs that have been established in the region. The clubs are supported by the North Rupununi District Development Board, with support from the Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programme.

Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mVbIylXbHQ

Find out more:

• Wildlife clubs of North Rupununi involved in sustainable wildlife management:  https://www.fao.org/3/cb9095en/cb9095en.pdf
• SWM Programme in Guyana webpage: https://www.swm-programme.info/country-guyana

The Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programe in Guyana has just released the engaging publication Facts and figures from fish stocks in North Rupununi 2020-2021.

The North Rupununi District Development Board (NRDDB) started piloting an inland Fisheries Management Plan in Guyana in 2018, which is a collaboration with local communities and the Ministry of Agriculture, Department of Fisheries.

The field surveys aimed at monitoring changes in the number and size of arapaima (Arapaima arapaima) and other common fish species and was designed to support quantitative state assessments for target fish populations in lakes and rivers.

Curious to know how were local communities involved? Or how do the fish surveys work? Perhaps you would like to find out more about the challenges, findings and plans for the future? You can find all these answers on the link below!

Facts and figures from fish stocks in North Rupununi 2020-2021: https://bit.ly/3FaDMXw

The latest SWM Programme consolidated report is a summary of the studies carried out in Guyana.

This publication included the legal, ecological and socio-economic baseline studies to inform sustainable wildlife management in the Rupununi region of the country.

In Guyana, the SWM Programme seeks to ensure that the Rupununi region continues to have sustainable options for food security and livelihoods in accordance with traditional lifestyles, while maintaining healthy wildlife populations. It builds upon existing strategies, visions and development plans at the local and national levels and works with the in-country partner is the Guyana Wildlife Conservation and Management Commission, which is strengthening legislation on sustainable wildlife management. The joint objective is to pilot integrated sustainable co-management models for sustainable wildlife and fisheries management in multiple-use savannah–forest landscapes of the Rupununi region.

Find out more:

• Guyana - Legal, ecological and socio-economic baseline studies to inform sustainable wildlife management report: https://bit.ly/3BwxBcQ
• SWM Programme Guyana webpage: https://swm-programme.info/web/guest/country-guyana