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

correspond to a remarkably high proportion of Guyana's Amerindian population. The
total value of registered wildlife exports was calculated to be USD 2,100,000 in 1996
(Andel and Reinders 1999: 6).
The trapping of animals requires indigenous knowledge of their ecology and
behaviour to be applied in a highly detailed and precise fashion. In accompanying
Arawak and Warao trappers on a collecting expedition for macaws (Ara spp.) on the
Correntyne, I had an opportunity to observe this in practice. Specific locations are
used for trapping on the basis of their fulfilment of strict criteria: trees of species
known to be important for feeding at the time of year that trapping takes place,
located on routes over which large numbers of birds are known to fly. The trappers I
was with were familiar with several such locations spread over a large area, to each of
which they had returned repeatedly over the years they had worked as trappers.
Trappers work in pairs, one of whom climbs to a position near the top of the tree,
where he constructs a hide, while the other waits at the base. He takes with him a
tame individual of the species being trapped, which is held on a leash and placed in a
location where it will be visible to passing birds. Any bird that lands to join the
trapper’s ‘calling bird’ is caught in a net by the trapper in the tree, who quickly docks
its wings to prevent flight and drops it to his partner on the ground. Some trappers
told me that they employ a different technique for the capture of macaws, involving
the application of adhesive to the branch where it is hoped birds will land. The
techniques involved in the trapping of different species will obviously vary according
to their ecology and behaviour.
The sustainability of the trade is a controversial subject. Species-specific quotas
have been in force since 1987, but these were set in the absence of any baseline
population data that might have been used, and despite downward revision on advice
of the CITES secretariat, are scientifically naïve and may thus exceed sustainable
harvesting levels (Edwards 1992: 79; Thomsen and Mulliken 1992: 229). Much of the
trade is undocumented and unregulated, being either domestic - assumed to be
substantial in size due to the popularity of keeping animals as pets - or illegal exports
across the land borders to Brazil, Venezuela and Suriname. Birds - mostly Psittacines
and toucans - form the most conspicuous component of the trade, but are actually
outnumbered in the documented trade by reptiles; amphibians and some species of
mammals are also exported in small numbers (P.E. Williams, pers. comm. 1997). The
export of several species is banned, including, all those listed on CITES, to which
Guyana has been a signatory since 1977 (Edwards 1992: 77). It is unlikely that any
Guyanese species is threatened with national extinction by capture for the licit export