Book excerpt: The Guiana Shield ecoregion is an important part of the Amazonian biome. This publication highlights the contribution of standing forests to the high biocapacity of this ecoregion and how to leverage that capacity for sustainable development. Including key topics such as analysis of forest-based biocapacity, demand on biocapacity and the human development index, it also reviews priority setting for achieving national and regional conservation priorities and earth observation monitoring systems for payment for ecosystem services.