Kanashen’s tropical forest covers about 648,000 hectares, around three percent of Guyana’s land area. At the same time, Kanashen is a village with a clearly defined location: it is Guyana’s southernmost Indigenous village, lies in the Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo region and borders Brazil. The forest area conveys the broader scale; the location details place Kanashen within the country.

Kanashen: village and landscape

About 300 Wai-Wai people live in Kanashen. The headwaters of the Essequibo River are located there; Kanashen also includes the mountains of Wassarai, Yahore, Komoa and Kaiawakua, as well as extensive grasslands. Thus, alongside the forest, the landscape description names a river’s source, four individual mountains and open grasslands. This combination shows that Kanashen is defined by more than its forest area alone.

In 2017, the Kanashen Amerindian Protected Area was added to Guyana’s National Protected Areas System. It is considered the largest and first Indigenous-owned protected area.

Protected areas and their different scales

The Kanuku Mountains Protected Area covers 611,000 hectares and has a perimeter of about 590 kilometres. It accounts for about four percent of Guyana’s total forest area; within the protected area, 99 percent is forest and one percent is savanna. These figures measure different things: hectares denote area, kilometres denote perimeter; the four-percent figure compares the area with Guyana’s total forest area, while 99 and 1 percent describe the proportions of forest and savanna within the protected area.

The Kanuku Mountains Protected Area and Shell Beach Protected Area were established after decades of preparatory work with local communities and other stakeholders. Shell Beach is a national protected area in Guyana.

The Iwokrama International Centre for Rain Forest Conservation and Development, generally known as Iwokrama, is one of Guyana’s five protected areas. The National Protected Areas System also includes the Botanical Gardens, the Zoological Park, the National Park and Joe Vieira Park as urban parks. If the current system membership or the number is important for your planning, check the latest status.

Cultural significance

At Kaieteur Falls, a different kind of significance takes centre stage: for the Indigenous Patamona people, the site is an important spiritual place and a significant symbol. This is not about the area of a protected area, but about the cultural relationship between a place and a community.

For trip planning, the examples can be distinguished by interest: Kanashen brings together a village, forest and river headwaters; the Kanuku Mountains Protected Area represents information about area and vegetation; Kaieteur Falls represents the cultural relationship with the Patamona. In this way, Guyana’s landscapes, protected status and cultural significance emerge as distinct themes.

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