The firm contributed to the conduct of a Situation Analysis for the Designating of the Roraima Area in Guyana as a Protected Area for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) being the main partner/team leader and the Resource Economic Expert.

Our tasks included:

1. Meeting with the WWF and the EPA officials to discuss the outline and methodology to be applied for the study,
2. Meeting with government ministries and agencies, regional democratic council, indigenous organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), CIG, etc. to discuss the assignment, obtain views on priority areas and areas that may require special attention,
3. Collecting documents pertaining to the research on the project area,
4. Designing and pre-test the field instruments,
5. Conducting field research to collect, collate and analyse information on the various communities, land use, resources base, and challenges facing the area,
6. Capturing and summarizing stakeholders’ vision for the proposed protected area,
7. Identifying resources and exploring the development of these into viable project proposals, utilising various valuation techniques, such as contingent valuation and cost-benefit analysis,
8. Preparing a draft report that outlined the site situation as it relates to demographic, biological, ecological, socio-cultural, economic, political and institutional factors
9. Identifying and describing the key issues and challenges to the establishment of the proposed site as a protected area,
10. Describing the human-environment interaction and relationship within the proposed area,
11. Providing recommendations on the appropriate strategies for the involvement of local communities,
12. Hosting consultation workshops within the proposed project area and on the coast to present and modify the draft document, and
13. Finalising and presenting the situation analysis report.

Duration: January – April, 2007