Dear Editor,
I happened to be in Aishalton Village, South Rupununi on June 24th where I attended a book launch. My first experience of such a noble event in an Indigenous community away from a traditional academic environment. According to Toshao Michael Thomas, “the book launch was the first of its kind to be experienced in the community. One in a million years, Aishalton produced a book”. The assessment in the form of a book was part of an advocacy initiative of Aishalton Village Council applying for land extension which covers the Karaawaimin Taawa or Blue Mountain, an area in the environs of the Wapichan community.
The lobbying process began with several persons over the years, pushing for Aishalton land extension, however a justification was required to put forward to the government why villagers wanted the land. For the Wapichan, the area is a sacred space and is part of their ancestral territory that is rich in biodiversity. Having done this first phase of justification, the Aishalton Village Council sought assistance from the South Rupununi District Council (SRDC) to make a proposal for a project to do a biodiversity assessment of the mountain and its environment. The engagement with SRDC made the village council worked along with the Sustainable Wildlife Manage-ment (SWM), a programme which seeks to ensure that the Rupununi region can continue to offer sustainable options for food and security and livelihoods in accordance with traditional lifestyles, while maintaining healthy fish and terrestrial wildlife populations at the landscape level.
It has been locally recognized since the early development of the programme that the sustainable use of wildlife in the Rupununi will only be possible if action is taken to reduce the illegal wildlife trade. The project also collaborated with the University of Guyana (UG) and research-ers from foreign universities, along with local Wapichan from Aishalton and outlying communities of South Rupununi; making use of their knowledge of the forest and of Karaawaimin Taawa or Blue Mountain, to produce the book. The documentation of the forest and its wildlife etc., in Wapichan traditional sacred area, in a publication, reflects a perfect example for residents of Aishalton to lobby for land extension and a concern for biodiversity.
The initiative also serves for other Wapichan people of South Rupununi to do likewise in advocating for land extensions as they continue to care for the environment and biodiversity in view of sustainable development for Indigenous communities. In concluding, I perceive the initiative an excellent one that serves other indigenous communities across Guyana, where exists District Councils, to jointly develop studies using local knowledge with scientific and technological experts to document forest and wildlife areas rich in biodiversity that simultaneously promote sustainable developments and provide justification for communities’ land extensions.
Sincerely,
Medino Abraham
