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

industry rapidly disappeared. A project funded by Conservation International to
provide training in carving ornaments from balata and access to export markets for
these products has so far proven successful, although it is limited in scope to a single
village.
Balata production must certainly have been supported to some extent by the
indigenous knowledge of the Amerindian work force, if only to the extent that their
skills in living, travelling and procuring food in the forest will have been essential in
permitting them to stay in the forest for the extended periods required for the
collection of latex. The extent to which ethnoecological knowledge relating to the
bullet tree was employed in identifying new areas for exploitation and location of
stands or individual trees can now only be a matter for speculation. It is also essential
to note at this stage that Afro-Guyanese formed a substantial proportion of workers
in the balata industry, and the entire workforce in the early years of the trade in the
1860’s (Jenman 1885). The interaction of Amerindian and Afro-Guyanese workers
must have provided rich possibilities of intercultural exchange. For many of the older
Wapishana people with whom I discussed their experiences as bleeders, this time
represented the greater part of their experience of coastal society. Some reported
that they had learnt uses of forest trees previously unknown to them via this
contact, one being the use of the bark of the locust tree (Hymenaea courbaril) to
make tea. This knowledge may have originated in Lokono populations — certainly it
was by Lokono people that I was first served locust tea - and much of the
ethnobiology of this tribe has been assimilated into the general forest lore of the
Guyanese coast. Historical patterns of transfer of knowledge among culturally distinct
sectors of the Guyanese population must have been complex. The role of past and
current interactions as a result of shared involvement in the industries of the interior,
including logging and mining, would be a fascinating area of study.
Exports of NTFP's of plant origin are currently dominated by a single product, the
canned, edible hearts of the manicole palm, Euterpe oleracea. This is based upon the
enterprise of a single company, AMCAR, who were awarded a concession of around
50,000 ha in Guyana's Northwest district in 1987, and began commercial operations
in 1989. By 1997, over 23,000 palm hearts were being canned in AMCAR's factory
daily, an output worth over USD 2 million annually. Over 1000 local people, mainly
from neighbouring Amerindian villages, receive a regular income from this, either as
direct employees or by cutting palm hearts for sale to the company; many more
people cut palms on a more casual basis as their economic needs dictate. Two
independent evaluations of the operation concluded that the employment