Guyana's Green Heart: A Rainforest Run With the Makushi

The Iwokrama International Centre for Rain Forest Conservation and Development manages 371,000 hectares of virtually untouched Guyanese rainforest under a 1996 act of Guyana's parliament, testing whether a tropical forest can be conserved and used sustainably at the same time. The reserve sits in the ancestral homeland of the Makushi people, whose communities co-manage the forest alongside Iwokrama's research staff and share in its ecotourism and resource revenues. The Iwokrama forest is home to roughly 500 bird species and around 200 mammal species, including healthy populations of jaguars, giant otters, and harpy eagles. Its research site and river lodge at Kurupukari let scientists and visitors study a forest that has remained a functioning refuge -- its Makushi name, Iwokrama, translates to 'place of refuge.'