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South America and South Atlantic Islands
Guyana |
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Last reviewed: 6 June 2008 |
Country information
GUYANA TODAY
Country Facts
Area: 214,970 sq km, 82,980 sq miles
Population: 751,000
Capital City: Georgetown(population about 250,000)
Nationality: Guyanese
Languages: English, Amerindian dialects, Creole
Religions: Christians 57%, Hindu 30%, Muslim 7%, and Other 6% (2002 census)
Ethnic Groups: East Indian 43%, African/black 30%, mixed 17%, Amerindian 9%, white and Chinese 1% (2002 census)
Currency: Guyanese dollar (GYD). (November 2007 420 GYD to 1 UK pound)
Major Political Parties: People's Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), People's National Congress/Reform (PNCR) and Alliance for Change (AFC).
Government: Republic within the Commonwealth
Head of State: President Bharrat JAGDEO
Prime Minister: Hon Samuel HINDS, MP
Foreign Minister: Hon Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, MP
Membership of international groups/organisations including: CARICOM, WTO, OAS, ACS, ECLAC, United Nations, the Africa-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP group), the Commonwealth, the Group of 77, the Organisation of Islamic Conference, Non-Aligned Movement, the Rio Group.
DID YOU KNOW?
- Guyana is part of the 'Guiana Shield' which, together with the adjacent Amazon Basin, is the largest equatorial forest in the world.
- In 1993, the Government of Guyana, in conjunction with the Commonwealth Secretariat (amongst others), formally launched the Iwokrama International Rain Forest Programme. Guyana allocated 360,000 hectares of its tropical rain forest for an international programme to preserve the site's unique biodiversity, and to study and develop methods and techniques for the sustainable use of tropical rain forest resources. HRH Prince Charles is the Patron of Iwokrama and the Chairman of the Board of Trustees is Mr Edward Glover, a former British High Commissioner to Guyana.
- It is generally agreed that the name Guyana is derived from an Amerindian expression 'Guiana', which means 'land of many waters'.
Environment
Amongst the current environmental issues facing Guyana are deforestation and water pollution from mining activities and solid waste sewage.
Guyana is party to the international environmental agreements on Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83 and Tropical Timber 94.
In September 2007, during a presentation at 'The Leadership Challenge of Climate Change' convened by the United Nations in New York, President Jagdeo identified the need for a new global agenda to recognize (and compensate) the contributions of standing forests towards addressing climate change through avoided deforestation, carbon sequestration and ecosystem services.
He pointed to Guyana's vast, intact forest resources as a critical asset base for global climate change mitigation and offered to maintain extensive portions of Guyana’s forests in their pristine state, developing a forest management approach based on conservation and sustainable harvesting and utilization.
He added that with 90% of the population on the coastal belt one metre below sea level, Guyana was particularly vulnerable to climate change, and its vulnerability was vividly demonstrated by a massive flood in 2005 which was estimated to have led to losses equivalent to approximately 60% of the country's GDP.
