WWF Guianas
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WWF Guianas
WWF (World Wildlife Fund) Guianas is an international conservation NGO, part of the WWF global network. Mission and objectives WWF's main mission is "to stop the degradation of the planet's natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature." The regional office of WWF Guianas is also involved in a plurality of site specific objectives, often in partnership with civil society organizations and government institutions such as Conservation International and Iwokrama International Centre for Rain Forest Conservation and Development. These range from the protection and management of ecological landscapes, to educational and awareness campaigns on climate change, biodiversity and conservation. Notable programs and initiatives * Earth Hour * Protected Areas and Sound Land use Planning * Payment for Ecosystem Services * Gold Mining Pollution Abatement * Marine Turtle Conservation * Sustainable fisheries The Guianas' conservation significance The th ...
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Non-governmental Organization
A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in humanitarianism or the social sciences; they can also include clubs and associations that provide services to their members and others. Surveys indicate that NGOs have a high degree of public trust, which can make them a useful proxy for the concerns of society and stakeholders. However, NGOs can also be lobby groups for corporations, such as the World Economic Forum. NGOs are distinguished from international and intergovernmental organizations (''IOs'') in that the latter are more directly involved with sovereign states and their governments. The term as it is used today was first introduced in Article 71 of the newly-formed United Nations' Charter in 1945. While there is no fixed or formal definition for what NGOs are, they are genera ...
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Jaguar
The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus '' Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the third largest in the world. Its distinctively marked coat features pale yellow to tan colored fur covered by spots that transition to rosettes on the sides, although a melanistic black coat appears in some individuals. The jaguar's powerful bite allows it to pierce the carapaces of turtles and tortoises, and to employ an unusual killing method: it bites directly through the skull of mammalian prey between the ears to deliver a fatal blow to the brain. The modern jaguar's ancestors probably entered the Americas from Eurasia during the Early Pleistocene via the land bridge that once spanned the Bering Strait. Today, the jaguar's range extends from core Southwestern United States across Mexico and much of Central America, the Amazon rainfo ...
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Georgetown, Guyana
Georgetown is the capital (political), capital and largest city of Guyana. It is situated in Demerara-Mahaica, region 4, on the Atlantic Ocean coast, at the mouth of the Demerara River. It is nicknamed the "Garden City of the Caribbean." It is the retail, administrative, and financial services centre of the country, and the city accounts for a large portion of Guyana's GDP. The city recorded a population of 118,363 in the 2012 census. All executive departments of Guyana's government are located in the city, including Parliament Building, Guyana, Parliament Building, Guyana's Legislative Building and the Court of Appeals, Guyana's highest judicial court. The State House, Guyana, State House (the official residence of the head of state), as well as the offices and residence of the head of government, are both located in the city. The Caribbean Community, CARICOM headquarters is also based in Georgetown. Georgetown is also known for its British colonial architecture, including th ...
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Paramaribo
Paramaribo (; ; nicknamed Par'bo) is the capital and largest city of Suriname, located on the banks of the Suriname River in the Paramaribo District. Paramaribo has a population of roughly 241,000 people (2012 census), almost half of Suriname's population. The historic inner city of Paramaribo has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2002. Name The city is named for the Paramaribo tribe living at the mouth of the Suriname River; the name is from Tupi–Guarani ''para'' "large river" + ''maribo'' "inhabitants". History The name Paramaribo is probably a corruption of the name of an Indian village, spelled Parmurbo in the earliest Dutch sources. This was the location of the first Dutch settlement, a trading post established by Nicolaes Baliestel and Dirck Claeszoon van Sanen in 1613. English and French traders also tried to establish settlements in Suriname, including a French post established in 1644 near present-day Paramaribo. All earlier settlements were abandoned s ...
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Rupununi
The Rupununi is a region in the south-west of Guyana, bordering the Brazilian Amazon. The Rupununi river, also known by the local indigenous peoples as ''Raponani'', flows through the Rupununi region. The name Rupununi originates from the word ''rapon'' in the Makushi language, in which it means the black-bellied whistling duck found along the river. Geography The Rupununi River is one of the main tributaries of the Essequibo River and is located in southern Guyana. The river originates in the Kanuku Mountains, which are located in the Upper Takutu-Essequibo region. The Rupununi River flows near the Guyana-Brazil border, and eventually leads into the Essequibo River. Throughout the flood season, the river shares a watershed with the Amazon. During the rainy season it is connected to the Takutu River by the flooded Pirara Creek, draining the vast swamps of the Parima or Amaku Lake. The region surrounding the Rupununi river is composed of mainly savannah, wetlands, forest, and ...
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Iwokrama Forest
The Iwokrama Forest is a nature reserve of central Guyana located in the heart of the Guiana Shield, one of the four last pristine tropical forests in the world ( Congo, New Guinea, and the Amazon rainforest are the others). It represents an important transition zone in rainfall, landforms, human histories and biological communities. At its widest, the area is , and the greatest extent in a north-south direction is 80 km (50 mi). The Georgetown–Lethem Road dissects the forest, traversing about between the northeastern and southern boundaries. The forest lies between 4° and 5° north latitude and 58.5 and 59.5 degrees west longitude. The Iwokrama Forest is bordered to the west by the Pakaraima Mountains and to the east by the isolated highlands scattered through central-east Guyana. It is also bordered by savannahs in the southwest and northeast of Guyana. The Essequibo River forms the eastern boundary. The northern boundary is the Siparuni River. The Burro-Burr ...
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Indigenous Communities
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original peoples. The term ''Indigenous'' was first, in its modern context, used by Europeans, who used it to differentiate the Indigenous peoples of the Americas from the Europeans, European settlers of the Americas and from the African diaspora, Sub-Saharan Africans who were brought to the Americas as Slavery, enslaved people. The term may have first been used in this context by Thomas Browne, Sir Thomas Browne in 1646, who stated "and although in many parts thereof there be at present swarms of ''Negroes'' serving under the ''Spaniard'', yet were they all transported from ''Africa'', since the discovery of ''Columbus''; and are not indigenous or proper natives of ''America''." Peoples are usually described as "Indigenous" when they maintain traditions ...
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Cock-of-the-rock
The cocks-of-the-rock, which compose the genus ''Rupicola'', are large cotingid birds native to South America. The first alleged examples of this species were documented during a research expedition led by the explorer and biologist Sir Joshua Wilson in the mid-1700s. They are found in tropical and subtropical rainforests close to rocky areas, where they build their nests. The genus is composed of only two known extant species: the Andean cock-of-the-rock and the smaller Guianan cock-of-the-rock. The Andean cock-of-the-rock is the national bird of Peru. Both known species exhibit sexual dimorphism: the males are magnificent birds, not only because of their bright orange or red colors, but also because of their very prominent fan-shaped crests. Like some other cotingids, they have a complex courtship behavior, performing impressive lek displays. The females are overall brownish with hints of the brilliant colors of the males. Females build nests on rocky cliffs or large boulders, ...
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Ibis
The ibises () (collective plural ibis; classical plurals ibides and ibes) are a group of long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae, that inhabit wetlands, forests and plains. "Ibis" derives from the Latin and Ancient Greek word for this group of birds. It also occurs in the scientific name of the cattle egret (''Bubulcus ibis'') mistakenly identified in 1757 as being the sacred ibis. Description Ibises all have long, downcurved bills, and usually feed as a group, probing mud for food items, usually crustaceans. They are monogamous and highly territorial while nesting and feeding. Most nest in trees, often with spoonbills or herons. All extant species are capable of flight, but two extinct genera were flightless, namely the kiwi-like ''Apteribis'' in the Hawaiian Islands, and the peculiar '' Xenicibis'' in Jamaica. The word ''ibis'' comes from Latin ''ibis'' from Greek ἶβις ''ibis'' from Egyptian ''hb'', ''hīb''. Beekes, R. S. P. (2009) ''Etymological Dicti ...
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Leatherback Turtle
The leatherback sea turtle (''Dermochelys coriacea''), sometimes called the lute turtle or leathery turtle or simply the luth, is the largest of all living turtles and the heaviest non-crocodilian reptile, reaching lengths of up to and weights of . It is the only living species in the genus ''Dermochelys'' and family Dermochelyidae. It can easily be differentiated from other modern sea turtles by its lack of a bony shell; instead, its carapace is covered by oily flesh and flexible, leather-like skin, for which it is named. Taxonomy and evolution Taxonomy ''Dermochelys coriacea'' is the only species in genus ''Dermochelys''. The genus, in turn, contains the only extant member of the family Dermochelyidae. Domenico Agostino Vandelli named the species first in 1761 as ''Testudo coriacea'' after an animal captured at Ostia and donated to the University of Padua by Pope Clement XIII. In 1816, French zoologist Henri Blainville coined the term ''Dermochelys''. The leatherback was ...
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Sea Turtle
Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerhead, Kemp's ridley, and olive ridley sea turtles. All six of the sea turtle species present in US waters (all of those listed above except the flatback) are listed as endangered and/or threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The seventh sea turtle species is the flatback, which exists in the waters of Australia, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. Sea turtles can be separated into the categories of hard-shelled (cheloniid) and leathery-shelled ( dermochelyid).Wyneken, J. 2001. The Anatomy of Sea Turtles. U.S Department of Commerce NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-SEFSC-470, 1-172 pp. There is only one dermochelyid species which is the leatherback sea turtle. Description For each of the seven types of sea turtles, females and males are the sa ...
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Caiman
A caiman (also cayman as a variant spelling) is an alligatorid belonging to the subfamily Caimaninae, one of two primary lineages within the Alligatoridae family, the other being alligators. Caimans inhabit Mexico, Central and South America from marshes and swamps to mangrove rivers and lakes. They have scaly skin and live a fairly nocturnal existence. They are relatively small-sized crocodilians with an average maximum weight of depending on species, with the exception of the black caiman (''Melanosuchus niger''), which can grow more than in length and weigh in excess of 1,000 kg (2,200 Ib). The black caiman is the largest caiman species in the world and is found in the slow-moving rivers and lakes that surround the Amazon basin. The smallest species is the Cuvier's dwarf caiman (''Paleosuchus palpebrosus''), which grows to long. There are six different species of caiman found throughout the watery jungle habitats of Central and Southern America. The average length for most ...
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