A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to ensure that tourism continues to meaningfully contribute to promoting values of Guyana’s protected areas, supporting biodiversity conservation and improving the well-being of local people was recently signed between the Protected Areas Commission (PAC) and the Guyana Tourism Association (GTA).

By way of the blue print, the two agencies will work together to secure the needed funds to realise developing and implementing tourism business plans that support the core conservation goals for the Kaieteur National Park and other protected areas.

This is in order to maximise revenue opportunities related to conservation tourism development within the national Protected Areas system. Conservation tourism is an evolution of the concept of ecotourism and is defined as a form of tourism that makes positive contributions to the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Additionally, PAC and GTA will work with communities within and adjacent to protected areas to support community-led tourism enterprise development and improve livelihoods, along with providing licensing and training services to tourism guides and businesses operating within and adjacent to the targeted areas to help raise quality and sustainability.

Both PAC and GTA have committed to securing the necessary financing to realise the purpose of the signed document, with GTA’s Director, Brian Mullis, underscoring the need for inter-ministerial collaboration across key agencies. He said, in addition to being focused on biodiversity, conservation and maximising the related benefits to the local communities, both agencies, have also been supportive of each other’s goals.

Commissioner, PAC, Ms. Denise Fraser, in echoing similar sentiments as Mullis, remarked that a well-managed tourism can contribute to the management of our national protected areas. In noting that her agency is a component in the management plan of each of the protected areas, she reiterated the importance of collaboration between her agency and the tourism managers, if the objectives of conservation and sustainable development are to be realised.