I WAS excited to see Guyana making strides in tourism despite its challenges. I was happy to read Rain Forest tours is about to embark on its 10th annual Overland Safari and about our former President, Hon. Bharrat Jagdeo being appointed as patron on some high level global forest climate committee. However, as I continue to read the newspaper, I was in total shock and grief to see that some villagers had shot and killed a Jaguar.
The ‘Panthera Onca’, commonly known as the Jaguar, is the most beautiful of all the large cat species in the world. CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) of which Guyana has signed onto since 1975, has listed the Jaguar as an Endangered Species, thus making it ‘illegal to kill’ one or trade/export without a CITES permit.
Guyana is currently marketing itself as the last frontier, as the last place on Earth where visitors stand a chance of seeing wild animals roaming freely in our forest, yet ask any tour operator when last have they seen a Jaguar. Tourist enquiring about tours and activities to Guyana usually at some point in the booking ask about the possibilities of seeing a Jaguar and operators today are left with just one answer, that is, we know it’s somewhere out there but we can’t guarantee that you will see one.
Seeing a Jaguar in the wild in front of you is just plain amazing. You just stand there, half panic, half surprised, excited and shaking, can’t find your camera or not wanting to move too much before he walks away. It’s an experience of a lifetime.

I think education and communication along with a lack of a proper plan by the relevant authorities here is to blame for the death of the Jaguar. While security of adults and children living in a community along with crops and livestocks is of utmost importance and should be protected at any cost, the killing of one of the world’s most beautiful and endangered cats is just as equally damaging.

The National Parks Commission, the newly formed Ministry of Natural Resource and the Environment, WWF, Conservation International and all relevant parties at stake should get involved to help educate the public on the negatives of killing these animals, and work with them to help come up with a plan to get the communities involved in tracking and keeping tabs on these animals.
If problems of security are detected then have an arrangement for the animals to be trapped by professionals and relocated or placed in the Zoo.

Saving the forest is one good thing, but what is the point of saving the forest if there’s no animals left to live in it.
I would be most happy and willing to work with and/or provide any assistance to the relevant authorities in relation to the preservation of our forest and animals.