French Guiana

French Guiana is the only continental territory
of France and the European Union in South America.
High place of biodiversity and one of the  richest in the world (animal and vegetable), half of French
biodiversity is in French Guiana : 29% of plants, 55% of higher vertebrates (mammals, birds, fish, etc.) and up to 92% of insects. All this in a single department of 86,504 km2.

• A national park and six nature reserves work to preserve diverse and unique environments and species. The beaches of the Amana Nature Reserve, in the town of Awala-Yalimapo, in the west, constitute an exceptional nesting site for sea turtles. It is one of the most important globally for the leatherback turtle.

• As a space port of Europe, French Guiana
  naturally turns to tele-applications with a particularity on the uses in isolated zone, taking into account the extent of the territory

• In the field of tropical health and emerging diseases, most tropical areas of the planet are suffering from pandemics of vector-borne diseases (malaria, crazy, chikungunya and Zika) which affect between 80 and 100 million people and cause nearly 3 million deaths annually. Numerous research laboratories have mobilized in the fight against these pandemics. Interesting avenues for control are aimed at the use of bio-based molecules.

French Guiana in a few words :

• HISTORY : the first archaeological traces (pottery, rock carvings, polishers, etc.) of Amerindian peoples between the Oyapock and the Maroni date back to the 5th millennium BC.
• LOCATION :  in the northeast of the South American continent, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north, Suriname to the west and Brazil to the south and east. It fits into the Guianan plateau that extends from Venezuela to Brazil.
• TOTAL LAND AREA : with an area of ​​83,856 km23 Guyana is the second region of France for the area. It is also the most wooded department, 97% of the territory being covered by an equatorial forest which remains among the richest and least ecologically fragmented of the world, the Guyanese forest.
• WILDLIFE : 5,500 plant species have been listed, including more than a thousand trees, 700 species of birds, 177 species of mammals, more than 500 species of fish, 45% of which are endemic to it (“silt” fish and fish with scales) and 109 species of amphibians. Microorganisms would be much more numerous, especially in the north which competes with the Brazilian Amazon.
• CLIMATE : French Guiana  has a humid equatorial climate; the average temperature is 25.5 ° C. Cayenne experiences a wet season from December to July and a drier period during the rest of the year.
• STATUS : Overseas Department and region of France, Outermost Region of the European Union. French Guiana has, since the territorial elections of December 6 and 13, 2015, a sui generis local authority called Collectivité Territoriale de Guyane.
• REGIONAL CAPITAL : Cayenne
• LANGUAGE : French is the official language of French Guiana but many other local languages ​​are also used. The second most spoken language in society is Guyanese Creole. Six kushi kondé languages ​​(black browns), spoken by the Guyanese or Surinamese Busi-Nengue (Surinamese for the French Academy): bonus languages, saramaca, paramaca, djuka, mataray, kwenty, aluku. The other regional languages ​​are six of the seven Amerindian languages ​​(Arawak, Palikur, Kali’na, Wayana, Wayãpi, Swivel), as well as Hmong (Lao language). Finally, the other communities that make up a significant part of the population speak Portuguese, English, Chinese, Spanish, Russian, etc. daily.