By
Sunday Lizu, 2nd year MDP student
It
was on the fourth of June when I left Winnipeg to what at the time was a known
but unknown destination. The feelings, as it is mostly the case for anyone
travelling to a new place, were mixed. Excited and expectant, I was headed to
Guyana, a country that considers itself as both Caribbean as well as South
American. My thoughts were that I was going to experience some South American
as well as some Caribbean way of life, but much more, as my final destination
was predetermined, the way of life of the Makushi, one of the Indigenous tribes
of Guyana. My brief stay in Georgetown did not offer me much to talk about here
but I did notice some rigid bureaucracies as I struggled as a tourist to get a
phone sim card so I could reconnect with my family back home. I was told that I
needed to produce a document (i.e. utility bill) that proved my address in
Guyana along with my passport. This was hard as I had just arrived in the
country and was staying at a guest house. It was a frustrating afternoon on the
first day as we tried to make this happen. When it finally happened, with the
help of an inside contact person known to our host, the sim cards issued to us
were limited only to the period of our stay in Guyana. However, my visits to
the two Museums in Georgetown (The Guyana National Museum and the Walter Roth
Museum of Anthropology) were insightful and provided an introduction to the
political and the natural landscape, but of utmost importance, the history and
ways of life of the Indigenous people of Guyana.
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| The picture depicts the process of making Cassava Bread which is an important food to the Amerindian of the Rupununi – on display at the Walter Roth Museum of Anthropology in Georgetown. |
A
one and half hour flight on a twelve passenger plane is all it took us to
suddenly keep the reality of Georgetown to memory as we were greeted by scenes
of a natural landscape that has the savannah areas encircled by the Amazonian
rainforests and mountain ranges. Beautiful scenes to behold that even from the sky
the story tells of amazing jungles and river systems. Welcome to the Rupununi. As can be seen from
the pictures below, one taken from the skies above the Amazon gives a glimpse
of the river systems in the Amazonian forest. The other picture however gives a
view of the Savannah, habitable areas, as they are surrounded by the jungles
and the mountains, seen in the near distance. One clear lesson learnt is that
the people live at peace with nature and even the frequent visits to some communities
by hungry desperate jaguars do not scare them. On many occasions, these wild
beasts pay visits to the communities for easy prey such as cattle and dogs. But
while, in the past, people had to defend their livestock
and hunting companions (dogs) by killing these predators, the language now is
that of living at peace with nature and conservation and though people suffer
the losses, they no longer make the jaguars pay with their lives for the crimes
they commit.
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| A view of the Amazon rainforest from the plane |
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| At Surama – a contrast of the savannah and the rainforest |
Tourism- Ecotourism is the big thing here, but next most popular
topic that a lot of people in the communities of the North Rupununi have come
to understand and educate each other on is that of natural resource management.
From the eldest in the communities to the youngest, the message of conservation
and sustainable use of natural resources resonates in every mind every day and
is surely spoken about and discussed at various fora. We have been educated so
far by both the young and the old on how to manage the natural resources
sustainably and indeed the communities have adjusted their harvesting and
consumption patterns so as to preserve the most important natural resources. I am
meant to believe that the decision by the government of Guyana to give the
Iwokrama Forests in the Rupununi to the Commonwealth as an international centre
was the beginning of conversations around conservation and sustainable natural
resource use in these communities. Henceforth, many programs, including youth
wildlife conservation clubs were created for the education of the masses. Other
projects such as COBRA (Community Owned Best Practice for Sustainable Resource
Adaptive Management in the Guiana Shield) and the CMRV (Community Monitoring
Reporting and Verification) have all come in to ascertain the impacts on the
ways of life of the Indigenous peoples brought about by these conservation
programs. It has been a learning process looking at how the people are actually
involved in these programs. Lessons picked up on the sidelines of my own
assignments.
Echoing
the words of the Agricultural Minister who came to grace the graduation
ceremony at the Bina Hill Institute on July 3rd, “Good
things happen every day in Guyana.” I would agree that good things are
happening in natural resources management in the Rupununi. For many years
people in the Rupununi have lived on fish and wildlife while growing cassava
from which they make the cassava bread and farini as well as the famous cassava
drink. It is therefore amazing to note the change in the consumption patterns
of the people and their interactions with nature. The message of conservation
and sustainable use of natural resources has been understood and people from
their respective communities are taking responsibility for the sake of future
generations. The North Rupununi District Development Board, in partnership with
various stakeholders in conservation, is responsible for a lot of the conservation
programs in the North Rupununi. The local ownership and leadership of the
projects and programs has facilitated effective partnerships that are producing
good results.
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| Sunday (L), Mr. Michael Williams, NRDDB Chairman (C) & Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, Minster of Agriculture - Guyana (R) at the Bina Hill Institute Graduation Ceremony |
