Green Antilles

From UN Jobs:

Chief Technical Advisor, Guyana

Under the direct supervision of the DRR, the Chief Technical Advisor will have overall responsibility for co-coordinating and implementing the Guiana Shield Facility (GSF) project in the country office.

The GSF is a multi-donor funding facility, with the European Union being a key donor. The facility aims at supporting the conservation and sustainable development of the Guiana Shield eco-region. The Guiana Shield covers 250 million hectares, is bio-diverse and culturally rich, and contains about 10-15% of the earth’s freshwater supply.

The GSF is designed to enable the six Guiana shield countries (Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname and Venezuela) and their local communities to develop, finance, manage and benefit from their natural resources. This will be achieved through the delivery of support to activities that contribute to the design of financing mechanisms for forest and nature conservation and management, information sharing, and sustainable livelihood generation.

The Chief Technical Advisor will provide technical leadership to the GSF Project, and work in close collaboration with governments, other UNDP country offices within the Guiana Shield, international NGOs and civil society in the Guiana Shield countries to identify and support priorities for conservation and sustainable development.

Periodic travel to other Guiana Shield countries would be required.

Get more details at unjobs.org. The closing date for applications is Friday, October 15 2010.

The Kaieteur News reports that today WWF Guianas will be publishing a report on the impacts of small and medium scale mining on forests in Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana and Northern Brazil:

WWF Guianas will … be presenting the results of an assessment done to determine the deforestation rates of small and medium scale mining in Guyana, the organization announced yesterday.

The assessment was funded by FFEM, DGIS and WWF-NL and falls under the Gold Mining Pollution Abatement component of the Guianas Sustainable Natural Resource Management Project 2007-2011.

In September 2008, WWF Guianas, in collaboration with the ONF (National Forestry Office, France) commissioned the assessment using satellite images and other digitized data to determine the rate of deforestation of areas in Guyana, Suriname French Guiana and Northern Brazil (Amapa) due to small and medium scale mining activities.

The studies were done for base year 2000 and correlated with 2008 to determine the rate over the eight-year period and corresponding maps were developed.

“WWF recognizes the urgent need for immediate action in the interior of the Guianas (Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana) to minimize degradation. The use of inappropriate mining practices is creating extensive damage to the fragile tropical environment in the mining areas.”

According to WWF Guianas, gold deposits in the Guianas are associated with the Greenstone Belt, an ancient metamorphic rock formation that cuts rights through the Guyanas from east to west, and has the potential for hosting precious metals such as gold.

“Hydraulic mining is the most common gold mining method used in the Guianas today. Current estimates suggest that there are about 5,000 to 8,000 mining units in operation; each unit employs about eight persons. Heavy equipment and powerful hydraulic jets are used to remove the overburden and the forest cover in order to expose the ore body.”

When heavy equipment is used large piles of overburden can be seen next to the excavated mining pits. Because the soil in these piles is loose it erodes quickly into nearby creeks and rivers causing increased turbidity and siltation. When the hydraulic system is used to remove the overburden it disappears as effluent into the waterways. No effort is made to protect the aesthetic or the physical values of some areas, the organization said.

Deforestation from gold mining causes significant erosion in the sloping landscapes of the mining areas, leading to changes in soil quality which slows down forest regeneration.

The large volume of discharge of effluent from hydraulic mining operations also causes turbidity and siltation downstream from the mining sites. Large plumes can be seen emerging from the creek that flow into the main rivers, discoloring the dark brown water into muddy brown.

These discharges are destroying floral ecosystems and causing a significant shift in fish populations, reducing the much desired species and allowing species that are not consumed to proliferate. Disturbances in terrain and hydrology also result in stagnant pools that become breeding places for malaria vectors. The illegal and uncontrolled gold mining is having an impact on nature conservation efforts in the Guianas.

I’ll update this post with a link to the report if/when I can find a copy online.

In the meantime have a look at the full article at the Kaieteur News website. Also of interest: more on WWF’s work in the Guianas, and information specifically about their goldmining pollution abatement efforts and their work on sustainable forest management.

[Photo: WWF-Canon / Roger LeGuen]