The Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) yesterday formally registered its objection to a United Nations Develop-ment Programme (UNDP) administered project for the extension of Amerindian titled lands.
“This action is taken while we wait to be advised in due course, with regards to this matter, as we regard the concept for this project, unconstitutional,” said GGDMA president, Patrick Harding in the letter to Chisa Mikami, the Deputy Resident Representative of the UNDP.
The government and the UNDP last Thursday signed a pact that will see an initial $360M of $1.2B being released for projects by Amerindian communities via the Amerindian Development Fund (ADF).
The UNDP is the partner entity for the ADF and in June, the Steering Committee of the Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund (GRIF) approved the Project Concept Note (PCN) for the fund enabling the UNDP to request up to US$1.8M ($360M) for project proposal preparation activities from the trustee of the GRIF, the World Bank. The GRIF is the mechanism through which monies from Norway’s five-year US$250 million forests partnership with Guyana are channelled to this country.
The GGDMA objected “to the lands set aside to be allocated, and/or demarcated, as/or for extension to Amerindian titled lands.”
In a statement, the association said that while it has no objection to the existing lands over which the Amerindian peoples have titles (currently 14% of Guyana), “our objection is to the proposed extension, which would result in approximately 35% of Guyana being made available, exclusively, to a people who represent less than 10% of Guyana’s population.”
“Our objection is rooted in the fact that the Government of Guyana is on a concerted campaign to reduce the small and medium scale mining sector. The small and medium scale operations will be the most affected by the proposed extensions,” the GGDMA added.
The association said that it finds the extension process especially troubling in light of the fact that the industry has been expanding at the fastest rate ever and the demand for mining properties is now the highest ever.
“More Guyanese are finding a future in the mining industry and one would expect that the government would hasten the issuing of mining lands to ensure that the country can capitalise on the current high prices for gold and other minerals.
We are very concerned that the Government seems to be preventing Guyanese from making a positive contribution to the country. While there is a high demand for mining lands, the Government instead of making lands available has been taking away lands, this is troubling given that the mining industry has moved Guyana’s growth forward while the rest of the global economy has been in recession,” the statement said.
“We at the GGDMA wish to categorically state our objection to the reduction of the land available for small and medium scale mining and the miniaturising of the sector, while there is a rush to extend the lands for Amerindian communities.
This is being done in some cases where there are no Amerindian settlements, only mining and other activities. We call on the Government of Guyana to urgently address this inequity in land allocation and to involve all stakeholders, including the forestry and agricultural sector, in meaningful consultation on the issue of land allocation in Guyana,” the statement added.
