Commonwealth Secretary General visits Iwokrama

On July 6, Commonwealth SecretaryGeneral Patricia Scotland, accompanied by Minister Sydney Allicock and Dane Gobin, CEO of Iwokrama, visited the Iwokrama International Centre and the Iwokrama Forest.

According to an Iwokrama press release, the Secretary-General toured the Centre’s River Lodge location at Kurupukari and paid a visit to the village of Fair View, the only community located within the Iwokrama Forest.

Scotland noted that the Iwokrama Centre, with a background in sustainable forest management and a close working relationship with local communities, is in a good position to take advantage of new opportunities such as being the testbed for new technologies for alternative energy and climate friendly products such as carbonabsorbing building material, developing best practice models in sustainable forest management, carbon farming and carbon sinks, developing and studying blue carbon, furthering the study of biomimicry, and identifying and developing forest based medicines and remedies in partnership with local communities, the release stated.

According to the release, the Secretary-General added that she supports the President’s vision for the Iwokrama Forest to house a state-ofthe-art world class biodiversity institute.

The Iwokrama programme is a joint initiative between the Government of Guyana and the Commonwealth Secretariat and the agreement is enshrined under the Iwokrama Act of 1996.

For further details, please visit www.iwokrama.org, www.iwokramariverlofge.com or contact Dane Gobin, Chief Executive Officer on dgobin@iwokrama.org.