Stakeholders of the Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programme gather for the final meeting of the project, Phase 2. Photo by Luke McKenna/FAO
This content was originally posted on Landscape Alliance.
July 2026 — Guyana marked two conservation milestones this month: The launch of a new Environmental Education Curriculum (EEC) for Regions 4 and 6, and the conclusion of the Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) Programme’s Phase 2 — representing eight years of engagement in the country.
At the closing event in Georgetown, SWM Programme Country Coordinator, Oswin David, praised the years of collective achievements, thanked key stakeholders, and set the scene for ongoing impacts.
“This eight-year initiative…has provided a roadmap for how we can effectively balance conservation and human development in Guyana,” he said.
The Landscape Alliance led the SWM Programme work in Guyana, and activities were implemented through the Guyana Wildlife Conservation and Management Commission (GWCMC) with support from the European Union, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and local partners such as the South Rupununi Conservation Society (SRCS) and Caiman House Inc.
Alona Sankar, Commissioner of GWCMC, echoed her support for the Programme’s work:
“From the Commission’s perspective, the SWM Programme has been instrumental in supporting our core mandate to conserve, protect, manage, and sustainably utilize wildlife, as well as regulate both internal and external trade,” she said.
“Furthermore, the addition of the Biodiversity Component in 2024 has been invaluable. Its goal of developing cost-effective, scientifically verifiable monitoring methods aligns perfectly with the initiative launched by His Excellency at the Global Biodiversity Alliance Summit. These findings will guide our national policies and bolster our efforts in sustainable development and conservation.”
The Biodiversity Component Sankar mentioned has engaged seven villages across the Rupununi to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of six monitoring methods: camera trapping, passive acoustic monitoring, bird counts, environmental DNA (eDNA), local ecological knowledge, and fish stock assessments.
Over 700 individual species have been identified so far, and the team has created a regional Artificial Intelligence (AI) model capable of identifying 445 species classes — one of the largest regional identifying databases available.
Acknowledgements
The SWM Programme in Guyana is implemented by Landscape Alliance [formerly called the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF)] and the Guyana Wildlife Conservation and Management Commission (GWCMC) as the National Focal Point.
The SWM Programme extends its sincere gratitude to all of the biodiversity rangers and villagers involved in the biodiversity component of the programme, without whom none of this would be possible. Special thanks go to the European Union for its generous funding in making this initiative possible; the Guyana Wildlife Conservation and Management Commission (GWCMC) for its keen interest and partnership; thanks to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations for all assistance during the project; to all the local partners of the Programme (South Rupununi District Council, South Rupununi Conservation Society, Visit Rupununi, Rupununi Livestock Producers Association, Caiman House Inc., and North Rupununi District Development Board) for their passionate work in their activities; and to all staff of the Programme.
About the SWM Programme
The SWM Programme is a major international initiative that aims to improve the conservation and sustainable use of wildlife in forest, savannah and wetland ecosystems. It is funded by the European Union, with co-funding from the French Facility for Global Environment (FFEM) and the French Development Agency (AFD). Projects are being piloted and tested with governments and communities in 16 participating countries. The initiative is coordinated by a dynamic consortium of four partners, led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) with the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF), the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).