The three Guianas (Suriname, Guyana and French Guiana) cover an area of more than 400,000 km_ of still undisturbed rainforest together. The Guiana Shield Eco-Region, as it is known, includes the Guianas together with portions of Brazil and Venezuela. This area is unique due to the richness of its biodiversity and its high degree of endemism. However, the term "biodiversity" does not imply an abundance of individuals of each species ­ some species are reported but seldom seen such as the bush dog Speothos venaticus. This area is so vast and so remote that it remains largely unexplored in many places and its biological inventory has yet to been made. It is a region that is found nowhere else on earth and is therefore of high national and international importance.

All three governments are committed to sustainable economic development and the conservation and management of their wildlife resources. Each country has its own environmental legal framework and trade controls that govern the use and harvest of its biodiversity. Each country's has devised its own evaluation of "sustainable use" and set the level of its commercial export of plants and animals ­ from no commercial wildlife exports in French Guiana to government sanctioned and regulated wildlife trade in Guyana and Suriname with important economic benefits.

Guyana and Suriname remain the only two countries in South America still exporting significant quantities of wildlife. Suriname and Guyana derive a significant financial income in hard currency (US dollars) and jobs from the export of fauna and flora (Table 1). Meanwhile, French Guiana has well enforced regulations that prohibit the capture, sale or export of wildlife, and only 12 species are allowed to be used for commercial bush meat purposes (and sale in restaurants.) Trade is not the only impact on wildlife -- rural populations in the interior of all three countries depend largely on bush meat and fish for survival (Table 8). Hunting in the interior is unregulated year-around activity in all three countries. Land clearing for agriculture, logging and roads are increasing in the region and gold mining (and its polluting factors) is now found in even the most remote areas in all three countries.

For nearly three decades, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) has been the largest and most effective international wildlife conservation agreement in the world. The 150 member countries that are parties to CITES recognize that uncontrolled trade and habitat loss are the main factors leading to the eventual loss of a wide range of species. However, to a large degree, the treaty's weaknesses lie in its implementation and enforcement mechanisms.

While each member country is responsible for the enforcement of CITES decisions, the ability and the commitment to enforce them varies widely from one country to the next. The same is true for the voluntary quotas that are set by each country to regulate the number of individuals of CITES and non-CITES species that may be exported each year. While quotas are supposed to be set according to scientific surveys which may or may not be modified on a yearly basis, some countries have not conducted surveys in decades and the quotas are set based on an average number of the exports made for a given species or, more alarming, on the recommendations of the exporters themselves. We will discuss alternatives in our recommendations.

The Guiana Region is only that ­ a region and not a union. While small in size and in close parallel proximity the three countries are quite independent from one another and hitherto there has been little cooperation between them, at least as far the trade in wildlife is concerned.