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

enefit of the entire national population and to ensure the maintenance of the myriad
ecological services they provide (EPA 1999: 37). While some attention has been
given to indigenous knowledge of potential commercial value, the broader
contribution of Amerindian technical skills, knowledge systems and cosmology, has
not been given due attention. A lack of information is certainly a factor in this - the
Iwokrama studies in ethnoecology aside, there has been little research on these
dimensions of indigenous knowledge, and little data upon which to base any initiatives
concerned with the practical applications of indigenous knowledge.
In principle, as the above analysis suggests, the indigenous knowledge of
Guyana’s Amerindian population could have diverse applications in development in the
interior. It is important not to overstate the case: the problem of addressing
conflicting interests and determining a development strategy of the greatest mutual
benefit to Guyana’s population as a whole is not one which has any simple solution.
While indigenous knowledge may well represent a body of cultural capital whose
potential contribution to this process is great, it is not by any means a simple or
straightforward solution. Its documentation and application themselves entail complex
problems in methodology, analysis, incorporation into planning and benefit sharing, all
of which must be carefully addressed. Their resolution within Guyana will require a
great deal of co-operative work among Amerindian communities and their
representative groups, government departments such as the EPA, Ministry of
Amerindian Affairs, Guyana Forestry Commission and Guyana Geology and Mines
Commission, The University of Guyana and other relevant research bodies such as the
National Agricultural Research Unit and Water Roth Museum, Iwokrama and whatever
future bodies are formed with management responsibilities for protected areas, and
representatives of commercial interests in the resources of the interior.
This thesis seeks to contribute to that process, being based upon ethnographic
research undertaken in collaboration with one of Guyana’s least-studied Amerindian
peoples and explicitly concerned with the question of indigenous contributions to
conservation, resource management and development within and beyond their own
lands. The next chapter moves from the national to the regional level, and is
concerned with the history and current situation of the Wapishana people. The
emphasis is on the increasing influence of exogenous forces, potential ways in which
this might threaten local livelihoods, and local responses to these changing
circumstances.