Latin America

Social Exclusion and Development Domination in Guyana
by Marcus Colchester

Profile

Community type and name of the community: Amerindians, Maroons

Indigenous community: Saramaka Maroons, Waran, Carib, Arawak (last three all Amerindians)

Forest type or biome: Amazon rain tropical forest, seasonal decidious forest, dry forest.

Main direct causes of deforestation: At the centre of Guyana's ecological crisis stands the country's indigenous peoples, long marginalized and threatened by violent conflict with loggers, miners and ranchers. Guyana's environment is now in danger of wholesale destruction. In the name of structural adjustment, this poor and indebted country is promoting a dramatic escalation of logging, mining and other forms of extraction. Half of the country has been leased to foreign companies for logging, while gold mining is going through a new and potentially desastrous boom. The Omai mine disaster of 1995 was dramatic proof of the environmental threat.

NGO/person that will participate inthe case study: Forest Peoples Programme (Marcus Colchester/Fergus McKay) Marcus is an anthropologist with extensive knowledge about the Guyana shield countries. He has been working with many indigenous groups in the area, including the Amerindians (Guyana), the Yanomami (Sanema) (Venezuela), the Maroons (Surinam). Fergus McKay is a lawyer who has been working for the past two to three years with the indigensous communities in Surinam and Guyana)

Time that the NGO /person has been working with the community: For Marcus several periods of months. Fergus has been living there for the past two years

Research done with the community about the underlying causes of deforestation : Main research has been on land claims and demarcation of lands as well as on the practices of the different foreign mining and logging companies.

List of publications on Underlying Causes of deforestation:

The struggle for land and the fate of the forest, Marcus Colchester & Larry Lohmann Forest politics in Surinam, Marcus Colchester

Guyana, fragile frontier, Marcus Colchester

Slave and enclave, Marcus Colchester

Forest Peoples Programme

Marcus Colchester
wrm@gn.apc.org
1C The Fosseway Business Centre Stratford Road
Moreton-in-Marsh
GL56 9NQ
United Kingdom

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