Dear Editor,
Recently, a case study in relation to the Convention of Biological Diversity (Article 10 (c)), was presented in Georgetown. The Wapichan people of the South, were proud to present the findings that revealed their customary use and related traditional practices had contributed to the pristine condition of the forests within their ancestral lands.
Little did they know that the very forests and lands that they have been conserving from time immemorial were soon going to be destroyed, when the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) granted concessions to some miners without informing the village councils and communities about what was about to happen on their lands. These are lands which were identified to the lands commission as Wapichan lands and this information can be found in the 1969 Amerindian Lands Commission Report. Since the identification by the then Toshaos, the lands were never given up by the Wapichans.
The village councils got no sort of information from the relevant authorities as to who these people were, much less consultation on what sort of activities were going to be carried out, activities which certainly would have a huge impact on the lives and future of a people.
Quickly destructive machines like excavators and bulldozers headed down south. In the rush to destroy the land, one of the excavators broke the recently completed 16 million dollar bridge over the Rupununi River, which according to the Regional Chairman of Region 9, was going to be delivered to the people of the south before the rainy season. We continue to suffer the effects of climate change – heavy rains – and these machines will contribute to further problems.
Parts of our roads to our farms have been destroyed making them difficult for carts and bicycles to use. One of the bulldozers was stopped by the Village Council by way of letter from passing through the titled village until the dry season, seeing the damage that was done by these heavy-duty vehicles. If you ever travelled at this time of the year out here, you’ll know what we are talking about.
The people agreed, but then unexpectedly the ’dozer came about 3 to 4 miles into the titled area without informing the council. On July 7 at a community general meeting it was decided by the meeting that the machine would remain where it was until the roads were dry and fit for such machines. Unexpectedly, the machine again was moved on July 16 through the titled village without informing the village council or anybody within the council; a council is the sole authority within a titled village.
Since all of this has happened, we women are concerned that if at the inception, these people are showing total disrespect for our local authority, what are they going to do later on? We were told that not even the regional councillors had been informed that this was going to happen in the region. Our village council and the community members do not know who these people are, as they have never made the effort to say who they and their employees are. What total disrespect! We ask why were we not consulted? Do we, as a people have the right to prior and informed consent about activities that will directly affect us, as these are having now? Why must these sort of sufferings be meted out to indigenous peoples in these modern times? Are we not entitled to know what is happening in our own back yard?
Can we do this in any other part of the world to other people and their lands? What about the required Environmental and Social Impact Assessments? What about the reclamation plans that are supposed to accompany mining activities? Are there such plans anywhere? Or is this a special case where these requirements are not necessary? We need answers.
As mothers with daughters, as wives of our own men, we women no longer feel safe in our homes, villages, and roads, leading to our farms . We are scared for our daughters and their siblings, who use the very road that is now busy with all-terrain vehicles.
We are afraid to go fishing with our children while our husbands are out elsewhere, to go for firewood, or go to our farms by ourselves on the very road we have been using peacefully from time immemorial. We are also afraid that our husbands will suffer because of us and our daughters. One of our sisters was scraping cassava at her farmhouse when a stranger queried the whereabouts of her husband. She, quickly suspecting his motives, told him that her husband was in the toilet. Her suspicions were confirmed when the stranger told her that if her husband was not nearby he would have held her down. What and who next? Who can feel safe in such an environment?
Our lands were once intact but now we are uncertain what the future holds for us. Definitely all our hunting grounds, fishing grounds, spawning grounds will permanently be destroyed and river courses diverted and polluted just for a few dollars more. This area is the headwaters of several creeks from where we get our supplies of fish and the habitat of lots of game.
Our forest which kept us breathing will no longer be able to give us and the world sufficient oxygen as it once use to. The Land and Natural Resource Management Plan which is supposed to be developed by the District Toshaos Council as part of the 10 (c) study, now may have to be shelved, as we are not sure if conservation of forests is important and a priority to the state.
We are aware that GGMC has a human resource problem, but yet it continues to grant concessions in areas that it services once in a blue moon, thus the lack of proper and effective monitoring. We have read in recent times in the newspapers what the environment is suffering in other parts of the country from mining. Are we heading for the same experience of the brothers and sisters in Arau Village in Region 7? These activities are the main contributors to the grave loss of biodiversity, a concern which was very much highlighted at the recently concluded COP 8 meeting in Bonn, Germany.
Everybody knows that we indigenous peoples live with, in and by the forest, and we depend on the environment and biodiversity to survive and exist, but if this is destroyed then we can only conclude that those in authority are not in the least concerned about our well-being, much less our survival as a people and the security of our future generations. Are we on the way to being wiped out?
Will there be any Wapichans left in the future? Only when the last tree is cut, the last river is poisoned, the last fish is dead, then and only then will we realize that we cannot eat money.
Is there anybody out there that cares about pure water, healthy fish, the macaws, the monkeys, the frogs and even us the residents? Can you help?
Finally, we ask that there be some serious rethinking about this issue and area. Allow us to be proved wrong where the preservation and conservation of this area is concerned and we know that with the help, cooperation, involvement and participation of the Government, together we can make it a successful indigenous community conserved area, without mining, for the world to see. Can we?
Yours faithfully,
K. Joseph
