As a country with expansive jungles and riverain areas, Guyana’s wildlife is often heavily sold to tourists and locals alike. While the popular adage goes that any publicity is good publicity, the focus on our wildlife has had and continues to have disastrous impacts on our environment, communities and economy.
To date, Guyana is one of the largest exporters of wild-caught animals in South America. With the Rupununi savannahs and wetlands teeming with biodiversity, it remains the most popular location for the illegal capture, transport and sale of wildlife.
For many persons residing in Indigenous and rural areas, the hunting of wild animals is mainly done on a subsistence basis and for sale in their local markets. This of course bears no significant harm, as local populations are often very versed in how to maintain the survival of wildlife. When talk of conservation and protection of wildlife comes up however, many still wrongly assume that they are being made to give up their subsistence practices. Rather, conservation efforts focus on ensuring the continuity of wildlife species while still maintaining one’s livelihood. These are often done through periodic hunting seasons and restricting capture of under populated species, many of which are already practiced by Indigenous and rural populations.
With the high demand for wild meat in urban areas and neighbouring countries however, many communities and the wildlife that surround them are under constant threat. More and more persons from along the Coast and neighbouring countries are getting into the industry of illegal wildlife trade due to the high prices wild meat and exotic species can fetch in certain markets.
This of course has direct impacts on biodiversity as protected and endangered species are targeted. This increase also often threatens the safety and food security of local populations. The prevalence of illegal wildlife trade threatens not only the continuity of endangered species important to our ecosystem but also impacts land use and hastens the march of climate change.
The nature of the illegal trade and its associated markets makes it difficult to pinpoint how many are involved and the estimated cost of the local industry itself. Yearly however, the worldwide illegal wildlife market is worth up to £17bn. The wildlife trade seems to be an equal opportunity one wherein it is not just limited to certain species such as Tapirs and Arapaimas, but also poses a serious threat to wildlife such as jaguars, Scarlet Macaws, songbirds, reptiles and arthropods.
What can be gathered from this is that the industry is an expansive and very profitable form of organized crime. Our permeable borders adds to the viability of the illegal trade and encourages free movement between neighbouring countries while still maintaining the main export markets in countries such as Singapore and the USA. When it comes to enforcement however, there is very little that has been done because illegal wildlife trade is often not seen as being a real crime but rather one manufactured by foreign conservationists. As a result, offenders largely continue their illegal trade with impunity, harming people and the environment in the process.
When it comes to the impacts of illegal wildlife trade on individuals and their communities, this is something often not explored particularly when matched against the backdrop that many community members participate in the illegal trade. With limited work opportunities in many Indigenous and rural areas, many persons accept work as guides to illegal hunters in an effort to protect their livelihood.
Despite these illegal hunters not being from the community, their reliance on locals to help in providing information, accommodation, food etc. often propels many local people to take part in the illegal underground economy as the formal economy lacks incentives for them. So plans that look at minimizing illegal hunting must not focus only on efforts of public education around conservation, land concerns and protection of wildlife, but must also look at the lack of economic opportunities that drive local communities to willingly participate in the trade. For the collective to become genuinely interested in sustainable development, they must first be provided access to income generating activities that do not rely on exploitation of their natural resources.
