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Pilot Sites - Overview

For the second phase of the Guiana Shield Initiative, pilot sites have been selected to implement payment for ecosystem services. These pilot sites are representative for the eco-region and its natural and cultural diversity, and serve as excellent testing ground for the rest of the region.

Below, you find an overview of the current areas that have been accepted as pilot sites, or identified as possible future pilot sites.

Guyana

Pilot site: Iwokrama, Guyana

The Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development manages the nearly one million acre (371,000 hectares) Iwokrama Forest in central Guyana to show how tropical forests can be conserved and sustainably used to provide ecological, social and economic benefits to local, national and international communities. For many reasons, it is a perfect site to experiment with payment for ecosystem services within the framework of the Guiana Shield Initiative.
Click here to learn more about this pilot site.

Colombia

Pilot site: Matavén, Colombia

Matavén is a very diverse area, both naturally and culturally, in Eastern Colombia, threatened by unsustainable use. The local communities, however, believe that “the day nature becomes an object of men, will mean the end of life”, and therefore they fight for the area’s conservation.
The Matavén area covers about 1.8 million hectare of forest with an immense biological diversity. It has five ecosystems, such as enclaves of savannahs in the north, caatingas (a semi arid eco-region in South America) and the most extensive flooding forest of the Colombian Amazon.
Click here to learn more about this pilot site.

Brazil

Pilot site: Iratapuru, Brazil

The Sustainable Development Reserve Iratapuru was recommended by the Brazilian Ministry of Environment. In March 2008, the GSI Staff and Steering Committee agreed upon the inclusion of RDS Iratapuru as a third pilot site for the Guiana Shield Initiative.
The RDS Iratapuru was created in 1997 and covers 806.184 hectares in southern Amapá. It is located between the Tumucumaque Mountains National Park and the Extractive Reserve of Río Cajari, and is thus considered an area of great importance in regard to the Amapá Biodiversity Corridor.
Click here to learn more about this pilot site

Suriname

Pilot site: North Saramacca, Suriname

The North Saramacca Multuiple-Use Management Area and the Coppename Mouth Nature Reserve have recently been added as official pilot site to the Guiana Shield Initiative.
The area covers over 88.000 hectares of coastal ecosystems and is located to the west of Paramaribo. For more information about this site, please click here.