Land Tenure Assessments (LTAs) conducted by the Amerindian Peoples Association (APA) over the last nine years have revealed that there is widespread land insecurity among Indigenous communities in Guyana.
This was revealed during a virtual launch of the research titled “OUR LAND, OUR LIFE: Participatory Assessment of the land tenure situation of Indigenous Peoples of Guyana” on Thursday. The findings in the research were gathered from Indigenous villages in regions 1, 2, 7, 8 and 9.
The research, which was conducted by the APA and 49 local Indigenous researchers from the various communities, commenced in 2012 after funding became available from the European Union (EU) and the United States Agency for Inter-national Development. Technical support was provided by the Forest People’s Programme and the Rainforest Foundation US. Human rights lawyer Lan Mei, who has also been working with the APA for the past three years, provided legal support.