From `concrete' city to rich nature study

At least a dozen times each year, a group of high school students
board a bus and journey from the hub of Georgetown, from a
concrete civilization, into the silhouette of forest green, where the
creeks are stained black and Acoushi ants march robustly on white,
Tiwiwid sand.

For many of them, this is a new, refreshing experience.

The somber shadow that falls from the Yarowkabra forest on the
Linden Soesdyke Highway, at least 37 acres of it owned by
Evergreen Nature Study club, is broken in one place by a long ruffled
trail that shines like a river.

There are graceful curves, reflected images, woody heights, and
over the whole scene, far and near, the dissolving lights drift steadily,
enriching every passing moment, with new marvels of colouring.

Most students living in resource-rich countries like Guyana are
studying and reading the same things in textbooks, when they have
a choice of actually experiencing them.

Teachers in Guyana are able to have direct contact with plants and
animals in their natural habitats throughout the year.

To exploit this asset, especially when introducing biology in the
fourth year of secondary school, would seem to hold considerable
advantages, allowing Guyanese students to appreciate the subject
rather than view it as information to be memorized.

It was this belief that inspired 37-year-old schoolteacher, Fitz Ogle in
September 1997 to take his class out of the classroom and into
remote regions of Guyana, where they can be taught to identify and
learn in a scientific manner about organisms in the ecological
system.

Ogle, an agronomic engineer who studied in Brazil, teaches
agricultural science at his Alma Mater, North Georgetown Secondary
School. His flagship, Evergreen Nature Study, carries the motto,
`Ever Researching, Ever Serving' and Ogle has been communicating
its main objective `To know Guyana's natural resources and how to
make good use of them in a holistic manner' to his 100-odd club
members, mostly secondary school students, scattered in Regions
One, Three, Four, Seven and Ten. It hopes to soon establish club
chapters in Regions Eight and Nine.

The Evergreen Nature Study Club has its office at Lot 217 Lamaha
Street, near west of Camp Street.

Although membership is open to almost anybody, the club is geared
to attract youths. Many of the students who are members of
Evergreen Nature Study Club study agriculture science at school.

"Guyana, today, a developing country having come out of a period of
colonialism, greatly needs to take careful and accurate stock of its
resources."

The development programmes are placing increasing emphasis on
agriculture, particularly the need for its diversification, but it is
obvious that in order to accomplish diversification of agriculture and
improvement of our natural resources, we need to know, among
other things, exactly what plants, animals and soil we have in
Guyana, where they are and what are their characteristics.

"With such knowledge we can develop techniques for maximizing
our gains from soil, conducting research, promoting eco-tourism,
creating employment and thus, go a long way towards real
economic independence," says Ogle.

Ogle started an outreach programme that invites students from 12
`underprivileged' high schools in the city, mainly those studying the
sciences, to become members of Evergreen Nature Study club.

Some of the schools in this programme are - North Ruimveldt
Multilateral, Tutorial High, St. John's College, St. Winifred's
Secondary, East Ruimveldt Secondary, Alleyne's High, Central High
and Charlestown Secondary.

Students in these outreach programmes help to identify a filthy spot
in their school compound, clean it up and do a bit of landscape
gardening at the spruced up area. The students at North
Georgetown Secondary, St. John's College and St. Winifred's
Secondary have even painted murals of forest trees on the outer
walls of their school building.

Ogle says this enables students or participants to develop an
analytical mind and wherever they choose to live in future, they would
have learnt in Guyana to be "very conscious of the environment and
keep it clean."

Although the club has a meager cash flow, (Ogle many times having
to do the leg-work and dig into his own savings to print study
materials, research papers, etc) groups of teenagers pool their
allowances and are taken several times each year on nature tours
and visit the club's research base at Yarowkabra.

The research site, a gift of the Lands and Surveys Department,
serves as a rich resource book for these young minds.

It's here they learn to condense months of plant-life theory into four
hours of practical, hands-on, fun interaction with nature.

Students, who are successful at research, are awarded a certificate
of participation in scientific research.

From a rented minibus, the students step unto the research acreage
furnished with seven benabs and a modest caretakers' hut.

This space is home to at least 20 species of animals, the most
common ones being - sakiwinki and howler monkeys, `bush' fox,
labba, Acari, swamp and `labaria' turtles, a wide variety of frogs,
parrot snake, sloth, armadillos, hawks, vultures, woodpeckers,
butterflies, bees, giant spiders and the acara crab commonly
identified by its orange legs and brown shell.

The research site has three classes of soil - clay, sand and silt.

On a small patch of land students have begun planting a small
garden that regularly sprouts bora, pumpkin, ground provisions like
eddoes, and even pineapples because of the absence of many plant
pests at Yarowkabra.

Most of what occurs at the research site is observational studies of
flora and fauna and the collecting of samples from each of the five
plant groups (food, medicinal, ornamental, utility or fibrous and
forest species).

The research site has at least 300 species of plants and samples
collected from these are either taken back to schools' laboratories to
be tested scientifically, or are kept by students as data for future
School Based Assessments (SBAs).

Students, under the guidance of Ogle, have helped to identify at
Yarowkabra plants that have medicinal properties.

Some of these include congo pump, crab wood, purple zeb grass,
cocoa-eddoes, sourie-nut, moco-moco, dakama, duka, ants-bush
and bamboo.

Evergreen Nature Study club, as an incentive to nature studies,
offers students and members of the public a one-year certificate
course that covers studies in animal, plant and soil science, food
and nutrition, ecology, geography, agri-business and art.

The signatories of this course are Iwokrama International Centre for
Rain Forest Conservation and Development, and the National
Agriculture Research Institute (NARI), to which the club is also
affiliated.

Members of Evergreen Nature Study club have toured the Iwokrama
rainforest, Ceiba Biological Center, Omai Gold Mines Limited, the
Mahaica/Mahaicony/Abary Agricultural Development Project site, the
Surapana farm, Emerald Tower eco-resort, and Mabaruma, among
other sites in the country.

Photographs and study reports taken from every research site are
posted on Evergreen Nature Study club website at
www.sdnp.org.gy/evergreen.

Iwokrama has transferred general scientific data about plant life to
the club, and it provides collaborative support to its members in
areas such as:

Providing access to the participants of the club to Iwokrama's
Information and Communication Centre.

Including the club in the distribution list for Iwokrama's
quarterly newsletter - the Iwokrama Bulletin.

Periodically allowing Iwokrama staff to speak at club
meetings on relevant topic areas such as plant science,
animal science, and rainforest conservation and
development, and providing advice to the club on possible
sources for external funding from granting bodies.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Resident
Representative, Richard B. Olver had commended the Evergreen
Nature Study Club for the demonstrated interest and involvement in
matters critical to sustainable environmental practices in Guyana,
and for its pioneering role in launching and seeking to give the Club
a national character.

Agenda 21, the action plan that emanated from the United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED),
anticipates, recommends, and supports efforts such as those being
pursued by Evergreen Nature Study Club.

Olver had remarked that it is becoming clearer that the most effective
way to ensure that persons and countries consider their impact on
the environment and consequently proceed along a sustainable
path is to have all citizens aware of their interaction with the
environment.

The UNDP has been mandated by the United Nations body to
address and promote measures that will preserve the global
environment for the good of all. In its support for Evergreen Nature
Study Club, Olver has offered the UNDPs participation in
collaborative efforts that will lead to a greater appreciation of the
environment.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) also recognizes
Agenda 21 of the UNCED action plan and has expressed its
willingness to share information on the environment with
membership of Evergreen Nature Study club.

So, what can one nature club and a bunch of young, avid and
possibly - future environmental researchers do for Guyana?

As Ogle puts it, "It is my belief that there must be a change of attitude
with regard to appreciation of our tropical environment, biodiversity
and agriculture along with consumer tastes - what we eat.

"This is the whole idea of studying together for the natural good of
ourselves, the human resource."

Ogle believes that a prior acquaintance with living plants and
animals would provide the soundest possible background for the
more systematic study of them both in later years.

It is a refreshing experience. Come along.