Gold value escapes while communities absorb damage. In April 2025 and again in June 2026, a government joint enforcement team arrested illegal miners inside the 930,000-acre Iwokrama Forest. Most were Brazilian garimpeiros, wildcat miners who crossed the southern border to dig where gold mining is banned. Iwokrama’s 2024 Annual Report had already reported incursions the…
A permanent access regime rewrites power before transport. A paved road in a tropical wetland does more than move vehicles. It redirects water, raises land prices, opens forest interiors, and changes who can enter and stay. In the Florida Everglades, the Tamiami Trail severed sheet flow into Shark River Slough. In the Brazilian Amazon, BR-319…
Why the Kanuku Mountains Matter. The Kanuku Mountains rise above flooded savannas and slow rivers in southern Guyana. During the wet season, floodwaters spread across the Rupununi and link distant river basins. Fish move with these floods, wildlife follows, and communities depend on the cycle. As in the North Rupununi and Iwokrama, this system faces…
Why biodiversity revenue is pressing now Guyana is being pulled in three directions at once. Global buyers want nature outcomes. Investors want bankable instruments. Citizens want jobs, services, and roads now. That mix makes biodiversity revenue attractive. It also makes overpromising easy. In Guyana and across LAC, governments and firms are moving fast. In many…
Historical Narrative, Global Standing, and Policy Stakes I was the director of the Charles Darwin Foundation from 2004 to 2008. When I interviewed for the role in 2003, I was met by barbed wire and the threat of Molotov cocktails. Between 2003 and 2007, governance broke down as conflicts over fisheries escalated, alongside rapid tourism…
A launch post for rupununi.org and the blog series on conservation and sustainable development in Guyana’s Rupununi. Guyana’s Rupununi is no longer ‘out of the public eye.’ New national priorities are emerging. New markets are developing. New infrastructure is shifting the interior from the periphery of national planning to the center of national ambition. The…
