The Konashen Community Owned Conservation Area (COCA) - a stretch of 625,000 hectares of forest in the southern region of Guyana - is relatively unexplored and considered to be one of the last large intact areas of tropical wilderness remaining in Guyana. The data collected during a rapid assessment survey, summarized in this volume, indicate that the forests of the Konashen COCA - maintained primarily by members of the Wai Wai indigenous group - are in very good condition and support rich biodiversity. The assessment team recorded twelve species that are likely new to science as well as more than sixty species found for the first time in Guyana and a number of threatened and endemic species.
Leeanne E. Alonso is vice president of the Rapid Assessment Program in the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science at Conservation International. Jennifer McCullough is the publications manager for the Rapid Assessment Program of the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science at Conservation International. Piotr Naskrecki is director of the Invertebrate Diversity Initiative of the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science at Conservation International. Eustace Alexander is manager of Protected Areas Planning for Conservation International-Guyana. Heather E. Wright works within the environment program of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.