Project Country: Guyana
Guyana is situated in northern South America, bordered by Brazil to the south and southwest, Venezuela to the west, Suriname to the east and the Atlantic Ocean to the north. One of the continent’s smallest countries, it measures around 215,000 kilometers – less than one-fifth the size of Colombia.
With just 795,000 people, Guyana is South America’s second-least populous country, as well as one of the least densely populated countries in the world. The vast majority – 90 percent – of this population lives on the narrow Caribbean coastal plain, which includes the country’s capital, Georgetown.
But despite its small size, Guyana is home to a vast array of natural habitats and a stunning amount of biodiversity.
The country is divided into 10 administrative regions, typically referred to by their number. The largest of these is Region 9, locally called “the Rupununi” after a river of the same name that runs through the area.
It’s in this region that the SWM Programme operates.
Project Region: Rupununi (Region 9)
The Rupununi is split into five sub-districts comprising 57 Indigenous communities and has the lowest population density of any region in Guyana, with just 24,000 inhabitants across an area of 57,750 square kilometers – just 0.4 people per square kilometer.
Moreover, the vast majority of those people are concentrated in a relatively small area of savanna or at the forest’s edge, meaning large swathes of the region remain uninhabited. Thus, the Rupununi remains an oasis for a variety of fauna and flora, with many rare birds, large mammals, and one of the most diverse water ecosystems on Earth, with 410 species of fish currently recorded.
These fish and other wildlife not only represent an amazing array of biodiversity but also an integral part of the culture and diet of the Indigenous communities that live in the region.