Emerging about 15 kilometres from the mouth of the Approuague River, Île du Grand-Connétable is surprising for its unique silhouette and the myriad of frigate birds hovering. Its current morphology has been shaped by man and today represents a sanctuary for seabirds and marine biodiversity.
The island is a tree-less rock that hosts thousands of pairs of terns, noddis, frigatebirds and gulls every year. Only colonies of seabirds between the Brazilian Nordeste and the Venezuelan Orinoco delta, the closest colonies are located on the island of Tobago and the archipelago of Fernando do Noronha, respectively 1,200 km and 2,400 km from the Grand Connétable.
Conservation
On the 3 issues: seabirds (royal tern, Cayenne tern, Laughing Gull, superb frigatebird, brown noddy, sooty tern), rocky marine habitats and pelagic habitat on a soft bottom, the RN generally achieves its objectives. Bird numbers remain at high levels.
Good governance
Community benefits
The National Nature Reserve of the Ile du Grand-Connétable is located in French Guiana on the South American continent. Emerging about 15 kilometres from the mouth of the Approuague River, Île du Grand-Connétable is surprising for its unique silhouette and the myriad of frigate birds hovering. Its current morphology has been shaped by man and today represents a sanctuary for seabirds and marine biodiversity.
The island is a tree-less rock that hosts thousands of pairs of terns, noddis, frigatebirds and gulls every year. Only colonies of seabirds between the Brazilian Nordeste and the Venezuelan Orinoco delta, the closest colonies are located on the island of Tobago and the archipelago of Fernando do Noronha, respectively 1,200 km and 2,400 km from the Grand Connétable. Petit-Connétable does not host nesting colony, but plays an important functional role in serving as a resting place for birds and particularly shorebirds (small waders, such as sandpipers and knights, highly migratory, emblematic of the world’s coastlines) who find refuge there at high tide.
On the sea side, the Reserve is home to emblematic species such as the Goliath Grouper, the Sotalia Dolphin or the Green Turtle, but also fish species representative of the shallow waters of the Guyanese coasts.
This exceptional situation led to its classification as a National Nature Reserve in 1992, the first in French Guiana. To date, the Grand Contable Island Nature Reserve is the only functional marine protected area on the Amazon coast and the second largest marine nature reserve in the French Overseas Territories.
The Grand Connétable Island Nature Reserve covers 7852 hectares. It is managed by the NGO Groupe d’Etude et de Protection des Oiseaux en Guyane (GEPOG).
Unanimous support and consensus. 9 votes.
EAGL summary statement:
The governance of the site is operational and participatory insofar as it establishes the governance bodies required by legislation, namely the management advisory committee and the local scientific council. The Grand Connétable reserve has been the subject of three management plans, the last of which, instituted over a 10-year period, is based on the new methodology of management plans (dashboard).
The nature reserve is regularly monitored and adapted to the seabirds populations that frequent the island and offers effective indicators for these monitoring, as well as for the monitoring of the surrounding marine habitats.
The main threats and their evolution are controlled and taken into account in management plans. The EAGL considers that the coordination with the various police services at sea and with the regional fisheries committee to fight against illegal fishing in the nature reserve is quite remarkable.
The seabirds populations are larger than ever and the EAGL acknowledges the effectiveness of the management actions are part of this success. Some indicators of the state of habitats and populations need to be consolidated during the current management plan, and these performances may therefore soon be scientifically documented. Finally, the compliance of the regional fisheries committee with the various management measures, and the respect by Guyanese professional fishermen of the limits of the reserve are all evidences of the achievement of indicators relating to cultural values. However, those indicators will deserve to be refined.
Reviewer statement
The Reviewer validates the GL process of the Réserve Naturelle Nationale de l’Ile du Grand-Connétable as being in compliance with the rules and procedures of the GL User Manual. The site visit was conducted on February 8, 2020 and the site visit schedule was approved by the Reviewer prior to the visit. The site’s mentor and the site manager attended the EAGL meeting on March 3, 2020 and gave a presentation on the site and self-assessment against the Standard Indicators. The Reviewer did not attend this part of the meeting but was provided with the full recording of the session and confirms the discussion and voting process were in line with the User Manual. All relevant documentation and information are available and complete in COMPASS except for the site visit report (for confidentiality reasons) that will be made available to the GL Committee. This report and other documents were shared with all EAGL members and the reviewer prior to the EAGL meeting. The assessment, MoV, the site visit report and visiting member’s feedback during the meeting confirmed the site’s high-level performance against the GL standard and at the end of the discussion, the EAGL voted unanimously for the nomination of the site for the GL, without conditions.
