Ethnoecology, Resource Use, Conservation And Development In A ...

the village and out in the forest. Some village elders were interviewed by local
assistants, who translated the results into English. I also solicited translations of some
myths and stories relating to the natural world, some translated and written by
Wapishana collaborators, some translated either by the teller or an intermediary and
recorded by me.
Many Wapishana stories, both traditional and anecdotal, have been recorded in
writing in Wapishana, and in a few cases English, thanks to the ongoing programme in
Wapishana literacy of the WWA (Wapichan Wadauniinao Ati’o, for which the
group suggests the translation ‘Wapishana for our descendants’) and the Wapishana
Language Project of the Unevangelised field mission. The same collaboration has also
recently produced a dictionary and grammar of the Wapishana language, which
proved a very useful aid. Mr. Adrian Gomes of the WWA kindly provided transcriptions
of a large number of the Wapishana botanical terms recorded in this study. Many
other biological terms are included in the dictionary, and I have used the spellings
therein in these cases. Terms not included in the dictionary and not recorded in the
session with Mr. Gomes I have transcribed myself, and are preliminary.
A variety of methods provided data concerning local views on conservation.
During the reconnaissance period of the research, I visited several villages in the
South Rupununi to determine which had an interest in hosting the research. On most
such occasions, informal meetings were held to discuss my research plans in
particular, and local interest in conservation more generally. The input of participants
in these meetings - usually consisting mainly of village councillors, teachers, and
informal leaders - provided a broad range of local opinions and ideas concerning
conservation. Within Maruranau, regular meetings were held over the course of the
research in order to discuss its implications. In the initial stages these were public
meetings with large attendances, in which much local opinion about conservation was
raised. In the second year of field research, meetings centred around a focal group of
those most actively participating, although open to all who wished to attend. The
opinions of core participants may by that stage have been substantially influenced by
our collaboration, but other attendees such as village councillors often raised
additional points reflecting other local perspectives. Finally, a few key individuals in
Maruranau and elsewhere participated in one-to-one interviews concerning the local
importance of conservation.