Largest-ever scientific expedition to Guyana's rainforest returns

Photo credit: Esteban Barrera, Field Museum

In November 2024, a collaborative expedition of scientists completed a month-long survey in one of the world’s most remote forests, in the northern reaches of the Amazon region. This survey of the Guyanese rainforest is the most comprehensive study of the area’s ecological and biodiversity ever performed. The land surveyed contains parcels of the largest ecologically undisturbed forests left in the world, making the findings fundamental to the scientific understanding of forest ecosystems as they exist today. 

In the southern reaches of Guyana, nestled between the Amazon River basin and the Guiana Shield lies the Acarai-Corentyne Corridor. A sea of lush green forests braided by rivers pulse through the landscape. Few people have set foot in this place, making this remote wilderness a scientific treasure and, increasingly, an anomaly.

The partnership, formed by the Protected Areas Commission (PAC), the Field Museum of Natural History, and numerous local Guyanese institutions, brought together 55 experts from a wide swath of scientific study including geology, pants, fishes, reptiles, amphibians, birds, mammals, soils, and local ecology, in order to perform a comprehensive investigation of the region’s unique ecosystem. 

“Guyana is a global hotspot for biodiversity and harbors one of the best-protected tracts of rainforest on Earth,” says expedition leader Dr. Lesley de Souza, Lead Conservation Ecologist at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. “But many areas of Guyana have not been scientifically documented. The Amerindian communities know more about these areas than the foreign scientists who come to study the region’s biodiversity. Our goal is to marry these two bodies of knowledge.”

This was the first expedition in nearly 90 years to explore the biodiversity of the New River, a tropical wilderness that possesses some of the world’s least-explored plant and animal life. Protected for decades from logging, mining, and other extractive industries, the area is now a keystone of the government’s strategy to sustain ecosystem services, build climate resilience and conservation models that can be replicated. The information gathered by the expedition will give the government a solid foundation for decisions about the area’s future.

The Protected Areas Commission of Guyana (PAC) partnered with the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago to conduct the Rapid Inventory. Commissioner Jason Fraser leads PAC to manage the current protected areas and is also focused on identifying areas in Guyana with opportunities for conservation.

 “Guyana is building a new model of conservation that benefits all Guyanese, and that requires the highest-quality science available. Sampling our biodiversity with a combination of cutting-edge research methods, local Amerindian knowledge, and an all-star team of Guyanese and international scientists is yielding insights that we just can’t get any other way.”

Commissioner Jason Fraser sees the rapid inventory as an important tool as they plan for the expansion of the Protected Area System. Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy aims to reach 30% protection of the nation’s terrestrial and marine areas by 2030.

Now out of the field, the team will spend a week synthesizing, analyzing, and writing up a draft of the final report. The team provides a summary of these preliminary results shortly after getting out of the field. Biodiversity data from the rapid inventory is shared to decision makers to provide key information for conservation planning and natural resource management. 

PAC and Field Museum worked together to build a diverse team that incorporates several agencies, institutions and communities, these included: Environmental Protection Agency, University of Guyana (UG), Conservation International-Guyana, Frankfurt Zoological Society-Guyana, South Rupununi Conservation Society, Masakenari Village, Parabara Village and Cashew Island Village. Thirty-eight Guyanese and seventeen internationals made up the field team. This multinational team enables knowledge exchange at all levels.