Make discover Guiana

With its rich biodiversity, French Guiana’s wilderness areas must be protected in a sustainable way, respecting its plants and animals and the people who live there. There is broad consensus among ecologists, elected leaders, scientists, and organizations working to preserve the Guianese biotopes.

Research is being carried out to understand these environments better and make them accessible to ecotourism.

1  Amana Nature Reserve   
2  White Sands Biotope Protection Order
3  Lucifer/Dékou/Dékou State Biological Reserve
4  Trinité Nature Reserve
5  Grand Matoury Biotope Protection Order
6  Île du Grand Connétable Nature Reserve
7  Kaw-Roura Nature Reserve
8  Trésor Voluntary Nature Reserve
9  Nouragues Nature Reserve
10 Saül Biotope Protection Order

Kaw Nature Reserve

This 366-square-mile (94,700 hectares) reserve contains significant biodiversity. Its swamps are home to one of the last stable populations of South American black caimans, as well as other species, such as Cuvier’s dwarf caiman, the spectacled caiman, and the smooth-fronted caiman. It is also a superb place for bird-watching. The hoatzin, the only ruminant bird in the world, is found here. This wilderness environment is a favorite of both scientists and the public.

Trésor Voluntary Nature Reserve

Because Kaw Mountain and its surroundings offer a biotope that is one of a kind in the world, the University of Utrecht, in the Netherlands, decided to purchase about 10 square miles (2,500 hectares) of the forest. The goal of the university, which is renowned for its work in tropical botany, is to conserve for scientific research a nature area important in terms of its ecology, animals, and plants. To raise awareness of its work, they also created a botanical trail, making it possible to discover a vast whole made up of different types of terrain, including savannas. Thus more than 120 trees and plants have been labeled in an area extending over more than a mile (1700 m).

Trinité Voluntary Nature Reserve                               

This nature reserve is located in north central French Guiana, 18 miles (30 km) from Saint Elie.
Covering an area of just under 300 square miles (760 km²), it contains a 1500-foot (460 m) elongated inselberg. Its large variety of biotopes makes it an extraordinary site for scientific expeditions.
A new species of frog (Eleutherodactyle) was recently discovered in the area.
Run by the National Forestry Department (ONF), the reserve will very soon welcome devotees of ecotourism.

Amana Nature Reserve

This 57-square mile (14,800 hectare) reserve of beaches, mangrove swamps, and lagoons was included on the Ramsar List of Wetlands in 1993.
It is located on the coast between the mouths of the Maroni and Organabo Rivers.

It is also famous as the annual nesting site for many species of egg-laying sea turtles, such as the largest of these, the leatherback turtle, as well as the green turtle, olive turtle, and hawksbill turtle.
The reserve’s diverse bird fauna also makes it a center for scarlet ibises, macaws, and greater flamingos, as well as mammal and reptile species.

Nouragues Reserve

The Nouragues Reserve is France’s largest nature reserve, with an area of just under
400 square miles (1000 km²) and encompassing the Balenfois Mountains massif and a dense system of waterways, including the famous Arataï Creek where, during the last century, gold was first discovered in French Guiana. Here you can see many bird species, such as macaws and toucans, and large cats, such as jaguars.

Grand Connétable Reserve

This 30-square mile (7,852-hectare) wilderness area is a small craggy island located about 9 miles (15 km) from the mouth of the Approuague River.
It is one of the few sites in this region that has a high density of nesting seabirds, including the frigate bird, laughing gull, brown noddy, and various types of terns, such as the royal tern and Cayenne tern.
This site is solely for scientific research.

The Conservatoire du Littoral (Coastline Preservation Agency)

Since its founding in 1975, the Conservatoire du Littoral has continuously acquired areas along the coast and manages them to preserve their ecological balance. As a result of its actions, the exceptional diversity of the ecosystems at the Pointe Isère sites, Yiyi swamps, governor’s mansion on Îles du Salut, Pointe Buzaré, Mount Bourda, Anse de Montabo, the Montjoly salt marshes, Mount Mahury, the Rémire islets, Montagne d'Argent, and Monts de l'Observatoire—totaling nearly 64 square miles (16,500 hectares)—have been preserved. In the Yiyi swamps, the assignment of about 35 square miles (9000 hectares) of mangroves, swamps, forests, and savannas in the Sinnamary and Iracoubo areas to the protection agency constitutes a vast area of land and a significant increase in the types of protected areas. In addition, through the creation of a nature center and discovery trails through these swamps, the agency provides an important resource for learning about an ecosystem that stretches from the sea to the primary forest.

The Regional Nature Park

This park’s objective is to spotlight the area’s natural and cultural wealth by focusing on preserving its natural heritage, informing and welcoming the public, and promoting economic activities compatible with sustainability. This nature park currently consists of two areas, but, very soon, other parks will likely be created.
The northwestern area (Mana and Awala-Yalimapo) represents an especially rich coastal ecosystem. It’s not only an area internationally famous for its waterfowl and the largest nesting site of leatherback turtles in the world, it is also home to a succession of coastal plant communities
(beaches, coastal mangrove swamps, swamp forests, herbaceous swamps, and other areas). This region is also important to the Galibi Amerindians, who have three villages and a preserved cultural tradition.
The eastern area (Régina, Kaw, and Roura) groups together the swampy plain of Kaw, which has one of the last stable communities of black caimans in South America, and Kaw Mountain. The whole area, therefore, consists two habitats—plain and mountain—whose biological diversity is remarkable. The quality and unique nature of the landscapes, especially the swamps and surrounding forested hillsides, are amazing. Because they are so impenetrable, there is very little human activity in these vast swamps. But this wasn’t always the case. Amerindian peoples have left valuable traces of human settlement, in particular one of the most spectacular carved rocks in French Guiana. Later, the plantations left their own traces, including the ruins of the colonial Favard House.

National Park Project

In 1992, at the Rio Earth Summit, France announced that it wanted to create a national park in French Guiana. Located in the south of the region, this 11,600-square-mile (3 million hectares) national park was intended to preserve one of the last equatorial forest areas, protecting its biodiversity and ecological communities.
Drawn up in consultation with local authorities, scientists, and communities, the definition of the park is based on regulating human and industrial activities likely to disturb and harm the animals, plants, cultural heritage, and communities of the area.

In a program oriented mainly towards ecotourism, local development projects, suited to the special requirements of the communities, are underway, with the goal of integration into the park’s economic dynamics generated by future tourism.