PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo has approved the designation of the Shell Beach area, in the North West District of Region One (Barima/Waini) and the Kanuku Mountains, in Region Nine (Upper Takutu/Upper Essequibo), as protected areas. It is keeping with legislation recently enacted in Parliament, which provides for the creation of a Protected Areas Commission that would be centrally located responsible for implementing the provisions of the Act.
Provision is also made for local administrative bodies in the declared protected areas to be responsible for administering and executing the management plans of each.
The announcement was made by Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS), Dr. Roger Luncheon during his weekly post Cabinet media briefing at Office of the President, Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, in Georgetown last Thursday.
A protected area is a location which is important for its landscape, beauty, biological diversity or biodiversity, to the extent that its features should be protected by national law, he explained.
Prior to the President’s declaration, Guyana only had three legally protected areas, Kaieteur National Park, Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development and the Konashen District, a community owned conservation area.
In those covered by the law, activities such as hunting, removing animals for wildlife trade, picking or damaging flora, mining or commercial harvesting of timber are now prohibited and persons found so engaged are liable to prosecution.