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

2.6 Conservation interest in Guyana
Recent years have seen Guyana assume a position of huge importance in the global
forest conservation debate. It is estimated that forest, much of it pristine, still covers
80 percent of the country (Ek 1996: 15). Over 1000 tree species have been
recorded, in a total flora in excess of 8000 species, 30 percent of which are
estimated to be endemic, and 1063 species of vertebrates (Conservation
International 1997). In 1997, Guyana was highlighted as one of only eight countries
worldwide in which a realistic potential for large-scale sustainable management of
forest resources still exists (WRI 1997). The consequent interest from
conservationists has resulted in much external pressure to adopt a development path
that is compatible with the maintenance of biodiversity and ecosystem integrity.
While this may have served the interests of the Amerindian population to some
extent, in terms of support in their conflicts with extractive industries in the interior,
it has also created problems of its own. The rhetoric of participatory conservation has
rarely transferred into action, and Guyana's nascent conservation enterprise has
already come into conflict with Amerindian communities.
2.6.1 The National Protected Areas System Programme
The most high-profile conservation scheme mooted for Guyana has been the National
Protected Areas System Programme. Guyana is the only country in South America,
and one of very few in the world, without a national system of protected areas.
During the 1990's, with no apparent sense of irony, the World Bank initiated a
programme to rectify this situation. This included the nowadays-obligatory pretence
of consultation with the Amerindian population, when captains of villages from
throughout the country were flown in to an expensively assembled meeting at
Paramakatoi in 1996 (Government of Guyana 1996). Despite several flying visits to
Guyana by World Bank employees and consultants, little progress appeared to be
achieved by their collaboration with the government of Guyana. The stop-start
process finally ground to a halt after the APA contacted the World Bank to air its
complaints about the lack of meaningful Amerindian consultation and the
unsatisfactory situation regarding indigenous land rights. The response of the bank
was to hold up its funding allocation for the programme. The APA has since
contacted both the World Bank and the Guyanese government in efforts to resurrect
the programme in a form that incorporates the settlement of outstanding land claims
(APA Executive Council 2000).