Securing a Living Amazon through Landscape Connectivity in Southern Guyana

The project aims to secure a contiguous area of approximately 1.88 million hectares in southern Guyana through four main components: strengthening the management and infrastructure of the Kanuku Mountains Protected Area (KMPA), developing a participatory integrated management strategy for the North Rupununi Wetlands (NRW), revising the national Protected Areas Act to address legislative gaps, and coordinating with the wider Amazon Sustainable Landscapes (ASL) program. The initiative focuses on balancing productive activities like forestry and agriculture with biodiversity conservation and hydrological connectivity, while ensuring the rights and livelihoods of Indigenous Makushi and Wapishana communities.

• The Kanuku Mountains Protected Area (KMPA) is a biodiversity hotspot covering 611,000 hectares, with 99% forest cover, and is critical for carbon sequestration, containing 10.4% of Guyana's irrecoverable carbon by mass.
• The North Rupununi Wetlands (NRW) encompass approximately 9,018 square kilometers and host 70% of all vertebrates recorded in Guyana, including the endemic Arapaima arapaima.
• The KMPA faces several low-impact threats that require monitoring, including an increase in subsistence farming and the use of fire for land clearing, with 18 farm clearings observed in 2020 compared to four in 2018.
• The NRW is threatened by planned infrastructure development, specifically the paving of the Lethem to Linden Road corridor, which may act as a hydrological barrier and increase resource exploitation.
• Small and community-based logging operations contribute 70-80% of national production but often lack the rigorous Reduced Impact Logging (RIL) practices required of large operators, leading to forest degradation and higher greenhouse gas emissions.
• Climate change projections for southern Guyana indicate a temperature rise of 2 to 3°C by 2050, alongside decreased precipitation and more intense rainfall, increasing the risk of floods and droughts.
• The project identifies significant legislative gaps in the Protected Areas Act (2011), including a need for revised penalties, clearer resource-use guidelines, and the ability to recognize conservation areas outside the formal IUCN category system to meet '30x30' targets.
• The project's total cost is USD 9,777,148, with USD 5,152,753 provided by the GEF Trust Fund and USD 4,624,395 in co-financing.

APA

WWF International (2022). Securing a Living Amazon through Landscape Connectivity in Southern Guyana. https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/1008/2rv9wnzdmi_10288_Guyana_ASL_ProDoc_3_23_22.pdf

Chicago

WWF International. Securing a Living Amazon through Landscape Connectivity in Southern Guyana. 2022. https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/1008/2rv9wnzdmi_10288_Guyana_ASL_ProDoc_3_23_22.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=WWF International |title=Securing a Living Amazon through Landscape Connectivity in Southern Guyana |date=25 March 2022 |url=https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/1008/2rv9wnzdmi_10288_Guyana_ASL_ProDoc_3_23_22.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{wwfinternational2022securing, author = {{WWF International}}, title = {{Securing a Living Amazon through Landscape Connectivity in Southern Guyana}}, institution = {WWF International}, year = {2022}, month = mar, url = {https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/1008/2rv9wnzdmi_10288_Guyana_ASL_ProDoc_3_23_22.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }