Guyana is a small country in South America with one of the highest proportions of forest cover of any country in the world, roughly 60% of which is classified as primary forest. Its human population is mostly found in coastal areas, and the interior is largely unexplored. Meshach Pierre is a conservation biologist from Guyana, who has had the opportunity to work in these incredibly biodiverse forests. Here, he talks about his experience and the challenges Guyana faces.
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His interest in field work started while he was still studying biology at the University of Guyana, when some researchers took the students out into the field: “You learn all these things in the classroom, for example about bird physiology - birds are adapted for flight and they are warmer than us because of their high metabolic rate. This does not truly connect until you hold a bird in the hand and feel that it is really warm. That kind of connection with nature, and bridging the gap between what you learn in the classroom and what happens in real life, was fantastic. Since then I have managed to get out into the field quite a few times and I really enjoy the experience.” 

Meshach Pierre holding a Pectoral Sparrow (Arremon taciturnus). Photo credit: Meshach Pierre

Meshach then had the opportunity to join an Operation Wallacea expedition - Opwall runs a series of biological and conservation management research programmes in remote locations across the world, including Guyana, giving students the opportunity to experience field research first hand: “I went on an Opwall expedition in 2013 to Iwokrama and Surama, where I worked with the bird team. In 2014 I met Brian O’Shea, who started what is the first bird banding project in Guyana, and since then we’ve been working every year in the summer, studying birds within the Guyanese rainforest. Guyana is a bit smaller than the UK but larger than England and there are 820 species of birds here, which makes it very challenging to be a bird scientist. There is a lot of work to be done and you might actually be the first person to research something here.”

Great Jacamar (Jacamerops aureus). Photo credit: Meshach Pierre

The Rupununi Savannah. Photo credit: Meshach Pierre

The Iwokrama Forest. Photo credit: Meshach Pierre

For a budding conservation biologist, these first expeditions were crucial: “On my first Opwall expedition I met Andrew Snyder who later invited me to join a WWF assessment expedition in southern Guyana. On this WWF expedition I met Dr. Evi Paemelaere with whom I worked afterwards in Panthera. From the standpoint of a person from Guyana, there are not a lot of people to learn from because it is a small field, and there are limits to the education you can receive. In a self-improvement sense, working with highly qualified people from museums, NGOs and universities pushed me to be a lot better and to meet higher standards.”

Indigenous life. Photo credit: Meshach Pierre

After his studies, Meshach got the opportunity to study the elusive Jaguar (Panthera onca): “In the year after I graduated, I got a fellowship from Panthera, called the Winston-Cobb Fellowship and I studied jaguar and prey populations in an area with mining, logging and hunting within a logging concession in Guyana. Land use is changing throughout South America and understanding how jaguars and their prey utilize these landscapes is really important to determine how we can manage land use.”

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Even though Guyana still has a large proportion of its area covered by forest, the country is feeling pressure to develop, and in order to do that it needs to balance economic gain with sustainable use of its natural resources: ​“Luckily, this push has started during the period when the need for more environmental awareness was recognized and Guyana wants to improve policies and guidelines to maintain its natural resources. These policies need to be refined with further scientific work in order to be the most effective at managing Guyana’s natural resources​."

Guyana is possibly one of the least explored countries on Earth, and from a young conservationist’s point of view, that is a great opportunity: “There is a lot of research to be done in Guyana. There are not many places in the world where you can say you may be the first person to be doing something. There is a lot of important conservation work that needs to be done, and if you want to make an impact and contribute towards something very real, Guyana is a good place.”

A brief moment with a Puma (Puma concolor). Photo credit: Meshach Pierre

In addition to his interest in conservation research, Meshach is also interested in photography and the role it can play in raising awareness in Guyana: “Andrew Snyder, who is in the International League for Conservation Photographers, lent me his camera during the 2013 expedition. My interest in photography has slowly evolved into an understanding that there is a really big disconnect between the people on the coast and the interior. Many people from the coast don’t go to the interior and feel it is a foreign country.

I found that photography is a very good way to create interest and curiosity about the interior, show people that it is part of their natural heritage and history. Surprisingly, people have really begun to enjoy these things and there is a growing interest in seeing what Guyana has to offer.”

Below you can see one of Meshach’s first short documentaries, about the bird-banding programme in Peperpot Nature Park in Suriname.