The Indigenous World 2024: Guyana
Indigenous Peoples – or Amerindians as they are identified both collectively and in legislation – number some 78,500 in the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, or approximately 10.5% of the total population of 746,955 (2012 census).[1] They are the fourth largest ethnic group, East Indians being the largest (40%), followed by African Guyanese (29%) and self-identified “Mixed” (20%). The Chinese, Portuguese and Whites constitute tiny minorities. Amerindians refer to these non-Indigenous people as “coastlanders”, since most of them are settled on the coast.
The Amerindians belong to nine Indigenous Nations, based on language. The Warao, Lokono Arawak and Carib (Karinya) live on the coast. The Akawaio, Arekuna, Patamona, Makushi, Wapichan and Wai Wai live in villages scattered throughout the interior. Amerindians form the majority of the population of the interior, in some regions constituting as much as 86% of the population. The forest resources/timber on government-titled Indigenous lands (Amerindian Village Lands) are fully under the managerial authority of the Amerindian title holders according to law, while minerals in the same lands ultimately remain under national government authority. In practice, the political administrations and technical agencies are negligent when enforcing the law. Two Amerindian Village Councils have successfully appealed to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights against continued illegal gold mining and environmental damage, albeit still with no effective government response. The poorly regulated exploitation of these resources by multinationals, illegal miners and loggers is one of the challenges faced by Indigenous Peoples. Their primary concern is therefore to achieve full recognition of Indigenous land rights so that they can defend their ancestral territories from this exploitation.
The Independence Agreement from the United Kingdom (1965) included a land titling process. Recommendations regarding this process from the Amerindian Lands Commission (1967-1969) have never been fully taken up by successive governments. Requests made for collective district titles have been dismissed, resulting in the fragmentation of traditional territories into small areas under individual village titles. The Preamble to the Constitution of Guyana recognises “the special place in our nation of the indigenous peoples” and recognises “their right as citizens to land and security and to their promulgation of policies for their communities”.[2] Guyana endorsed the UNDRIP in 2007. The Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs reverted to its previous name of “Amerindian Affairs” (MoAA) following the change in ruling party in August 2020.
This article is part of the 38th edition of The Indigenous World, a yearly overview produced by IWGIA that serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced. The photo above is of an Indigenous man harvesting quinoa in Sunimarka, Peru. This photo was taken by Pablo Lasansky, and is the cover of The Indigenous World 2024 where this article is featured. Find The Indigenous World 2024 in full here
Revision of the Amerindian Act (2006)
No changes were made to the Amerindian Act in 2023 although the government has begun to implement its election promise from 2020 to revise the Amerindian Act cap. 29:01, 2006. However, the government has not engaged with the representative Amerindian associations; rather, it has given training to selected persons to carry out village-level consultations.[3]
Using money to quell dissent
Unfortunately, most government interactions with the Indigenous Amerindian communities have been less positive. The government has tried to smother protests against its illegal seizure of the forest carbon credits attributed to standing forest on titled Amerindian Village Lands.[4] The government has avoided discussion of its illegality[5] by emphasising that it is giving 15% of the net income from the USD 750 million (approx. EUR 691 million) ten-year deal with the US oil company Hess Corporation to all Amerindian communities, whether or not they are titled or have natural standing forest. The funds are disbursed to each community if it has prepared a village sustainability plan according to a template from the Office of the President.[6]
As presumably intended, the injection of an unprecedented cash grant of GYD 10 million (approx. EUR 46,000) per community was sufficient to discourage almost all local protest at the loss of Amerindian control of village forests. In our conversations with Amerindians, they recognise that this limited but significant influx of money is (a) effectively an election bribe and (b) a tiny fraction of the greatly expanded oil-fuelled national budget. Clearly, though, no village council could refuse this extra funding, even though acceptance would imply agreeing to the takeover of control of titled village forests by the Guyana Forestry Commission, a government body.[7]
Throughout 2023, government ministers countered even the muted Amerindian protests at the phantom carbon credits and government seizure of Amerindian forest by repeatedly emphasising the money for infrastructure that was being made available, with over 800 projects being implemented.[8]
Tragic death of 19 Amerindian youth
The emotionally dominant event for Amerindians and the entire country in 2023 was a night-time fire at a secondary school in the town of Mahdia that killed 19 Amerindian teenage girls and one boy, and the governing party’s crude use of this tragic case to make political capital[9] against the Opposition Coalition.
Mahdia is a small town in central Guyana that acts as a service centre for the artisanal hydraulic mining of gold and diamonds. The town has a “Wild West” reputation for extravagant spending and drunken behaviour by miners on vacation from the digging.
A state-run secondary school in the town provides dormitories for the male and female students who are boarders as many of the students are from the more remote villages populated mainly by the Indigenous Patamona people. The secondary school was one of those included in a 2015 diagnostic survey of national education commissioned by the Minister of Education. The survey report in 2017 was highly critical of the poor construction and state of maintenance of the school buildings. Apparently, no action was taken on this report before the government changed in August 2020.
The following minister then commissioned another report in September 2021, which was delivered in May 2022 and was also highly critical, noting in particular the poor state of 24 dormitories, which were in urgent need of repair or replacement. The total cost of renovating these dormitories was estimated at GYD 3 billion (approx. EUR 14 million). By the end of 2022, some GYD 0.8 billion (approx. EUR 3.7 million) had been spent and other construction contracts were in the pipeline; however, the Mahdia school was not considered to be a priority and was therefore not included in this first tranche. The total national budget for 2022 was GYD 529 billion (approx. EUR 2.4 billion), with a high proportion spent on road construction and repair. This shows that money was not a limiting factor in the slow government response.[10]
Additionally, the Guyana Fire Service also received a copy of the May 2022 report, which further noted the absence of fire precautions and fire control in the dormitories; however, they did not take any action because legal responsibility for the physical state of schools lies with the subnational regional governments. The Regional Executive Officer for Region 8 where Mahdia is located also took no action.[11]
The National Fire Service had built a fire station in the town in 2017. In July 2022, a new officer was assigned to the station, and he found that the station had almost no equipment and that the fire engine was almost unusable. In February 2023, he conducted a safety inspection of the school and reported an absence of fire safety equipment and precautions in the dormitories. His urgent report to the Chief Fire Officer generated no response. He also sent a copy of his report to the Regional Education Officer, and it was noted for action but was later misplaced due to staff changes. It is not clear if this Fire Service report reached either the Ministry of Education or the Regional Executive Officer, who would ultimately be responsible for ordering repairs and for training in fire drill.
There were 56 girls aged between 12-18 years in the dormitory on 21 May 2023. Because of a history of gold miners attempting to gain access to teenage girls, the dormitory windows had fixed metal grills and all doors were locked at night for their protection.[12] A fire was allegedly deliberately set by one of the girls, angry that her cell phone had been confiscated in accordance with school rules. The fire spread fast and the untrained dormitory supervisor could not find her keys to let everyone out. Nineteen teenage girls and the supervisor’s young child consequently died in the fire.
After some delay, the fire officer was located, who drove the barely usable fire truck to the school to attempt to put out the fire. The truck had a limited amount of water as its backup tank had been sent to another town to wash the streets in preparation for Independence Day celebrations. Additionally, the truck had no tools for removing window grills, breaking locks or demolishing walls. Fortunately, with the help of neighbours, the Fire Service crew was able to make holes in the walls through which 37 girls escaped. The small local hospital has no operating theatre and was obviously overwhelmed by this event. The state medical service did mobilise quickly and the country’s only national burns specialist flew from Georgetown to assist. Two severely burned girls were airlifted to New York for treatment; one of them was saved.
Soon after the fire, the government flew the families of the dead and injured girls to Georgetown and offered GYD 5 million (approx. EUR 23,000) for each deceased child, GYD 3 million for those who were badly injured (approx. EUR 14,000), and GYD 0.5 million (approx. EUR 2,300) for those who had sustained minor injuries. These offers, however, were made on condition that the families sign a pre-prepared letter exonerating the government from any further legal action or claims.[13] The government also provided unspecified psychosocial support to the families and people who tried to help, as well as to the villages from where the teenage students originated. It is not clear if this support is ongoing and, if so, in what form. Twenty-eight of the Amerindian teenage boys who were in the adjacent male dormitory have not returned to school.[14]
Two months after the fire, the President of Guyana ordered a three-person Commission of Inquiry (CoI), with few and poorly written Terms of Reference. For example, the Commissions of Inquiry Act (cap. 19:03, 1933/1997) specifies that such inquiries should make “a full, faithful, and impartial inquiry” (section 7). This was not included in the Terms of Reference. Moreover, none of the three commissioners had any relevant prior knowledge or experience of conducting a forensic inquiry. There were no witness interviews as to the history or quality of building construction, maintenance, fire prevention or from forensic accident experts. The CoI’s December 2023 report[15] instead focussed on the previous government’s inaction on the 2017 report, conveniently omitting the little action the current government took on the three subsequent reports drawing attention to the state of the dormitories and the town’s fire station. The government also made no commitment to implement those earlier reports calling for urgent action to repair the schools with any more urgency. Instead, the commissioners felt that the commitment begun in September 2022 for some work was “good enough” and came to the unsubstantiated conclusion “that a better-equipped facility would not have delivered a different result having regard to the cause of the fire, and the speed with which it became an inferno” [quotations from pages 37 and 51 in the CoI report].
Most egregiously, the report placed blame for the fire on alleged Amerindian behaviour patterns, for which no evidence from witnesses was reported. These allegations against Indigenous Peoples were not backed up by direct evidence, were disrespectful and libellous, and were contrary to the Preamble[16] and Article 149G[17] of the National Constitution, which uphold the Amerindian way of life.
Continued struggles for recognition of resource tenure
IWGIA has previously published reports on the intermittent struggle to obtain secure legal tenure of Amerindian Village Lands and resources and to combat illegal gold mining,[18] which continued in 2023.
An attempt by Isseneru village to halt mining by river dredge failed in the High Court. The lawyer for the village failed to demonstrate that the riverbed or riverbanks were damaged and had not realised that Village Lands titled under the Amerindian Act 2006 do not include the surface water in creeks and rivers inside or forming the boundary of said Village Lands.[19]
The more complex case of Chinese Landing was also not resolved. The Ministry of Natural Resources and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission continue to rely on partial interpretations of law, and the legal team for the village did not use the full breadth of the law to make a solid legal case to close down the enormous gold mining pit at Tassawini, which is located in Chinese Landing’s titled land.[20] This case will continue in 2024.[21]
Slow progress towards security of land title for Amerindian villages and communities
Formal government recognition of Indigenous land tenure began with the country-wide survey by the Amerindian Lands Commission 1967-1969, responding to the commitment made to secure Amerindian title in Annex C of the Independence Agreement 1965 from British colonial rule. Traditional natural topographic boundaries are allowed by Regulation 19 (2) under the State Lands Act 1974[22] and were recorded from aerial surveys beginning in 1974. In the first phase, 65 villages were titled with those natural boundaries for 1.587 million hectares (Mha) in the 1976 amendment to the 1951 Amerindian Act. A further 10 villages were titled in 1991 (0.413 Mha). Titling continued sporadically until 2013, making a total of 3.109 Mha for 110 Amerindian Village Lands. In addition, the names of 48 Amerindian communities and 20 satellite villages were formally registered in 2013, although with unmapped boundaries;[23] this documentation will facilitate future titling.
Over USD 13.3 million (approx. EUR 12.4 million) was allocated to the Amerindian Land Titling (ALT) project[24] under the Norway-Guyana Memorandum of Understanding (2009-2015), extended to 2018.
Progress was slow in the field as the fund manager, the UN Development Programme (UNDP), and the various Guyana government ministries and agencies grappled with a government decision from 1995 (but not operational until 2013) to greatly complicate the land titling process for Amerindians by moving away from the still-valid natural boundaries.
The current three-stage process for land titling includes cut-line boundary demarcations more familiar to the coastlander surveyors certified by the Guyana Lands & Surveys Commission (GLSC). In spite of manuals of procedure and the provision of training courses, the Amerindian communities have continued to complain about the three-stage process of “absolute grants of title”, demarcations, and “certificates of title”. This process may result in a titled area that differs greatly from the area which the village expected in its application for land security.[25]
The coastlander surveyors are accustomed to working on densely occupied flat lands and are unfamiliar with work in the hilly hinterland. Another perennial complication is that the topographic names used in the Amerindian communities may not correspond to the names in the national gazetteer of the GLSC. One obvious solution is to train and accredit Amerindian land surveyors but this seems to be outside the understanding of the government. It is not clear that the various government ministers themselves understand the different categories and stages of hinterland land tenure, and the figures of reported progress in land titling may consequently be inconsistent even within one document,[26] such as in the Low Carbon Development Strategy 2030, which claims that 3.304 Mha are now titled Amerindian Village Lands. We estimate that 7.8 Mha of Amerindian customary land remains to be titled.[27]
It seems possible/probable that rapid demographic expansion has caused some of the 48 Amerindian communities recognised in 2013 to reach the threshold of eligibility for Amerindian Village Land status (25 years of recognised existence and at least 150 members over the last five years; section 60 (1) in the Amerindian Act cap. 29:01 2006). The government claims that the Amerindian population “has more than doubled between 1992 and 2022”.[28] This claim cannot be verified, however, since there has been no report issued since the 2012 Census. The ministerial speeches on progress in land titling are nonetheless not clear, and the web pages of the Amerindian Land Titling project are long out of date.
Janette Bulkan is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia, Canada. She was previously Coordinator of the Amerindian Research Unit, University of Guyana (1985 to 2000) and Senior Social Scientist at the Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development, Guyana (2000 to 2003). Janette carries out long-term collaborative research with Indigenous Peoples and local communities in Guyana. Her research interests are forest governance, Indigenous natural resource management systems, forest concession systems and third-party forest certification systems.
John Palmer is a senior associate in tropical and international forestry with the Forest Management Trust, an ENGO based in Montana, USA. His experience of Guyana dates back to 1974, including UK-funded consultancies on forest finance and Iwokrama in the 1990s, and studies from 2006 onwards on the history and many illegalities in the forest and mining sectors. Guyana also figures in his current work on certification standards for quality of forest management.
This article is part of the 38th edition of The Indigenous World, a yearly overview produced by IWGIA that serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced. The photo above is of an Indigenous man harvesting quinoa in Sunimarka, Peru. This photo was taken by Pablo Lasansky, and is the cover of The Indigenous World 2024 where this article is featured. Find The Indigenous World 2024 in full here
Notes and references
[1] Bureau of Statistics, Guyana. 2012 Census, Compendium 2 Population Composition. July 2016, https://statisticsguyana.gov.gy/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Final_2012_Census_Compendium2.pdf
[2] Ministry of Legal Affairs, Guyana. The Constitution of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, chapter 001:01, Preamble, p.30, https://www.parliament.gov.gy/Constitution%20of%20the%20Cooperatiive%20Republic%20of%20Guyana.pdf
[3] Department of Public Information (2024) 54 facilitators trained to assist with consultations on the revision of the Amerindian Act. Department of Public Information. 12 January. https://dpi.gov.gy/54-facilitators-trained-to-assist-with-consultations-on-the-revision-of-the-amerindian-act/.
[4] Department of Public Information. (2023, April 16). Gov’t takes strong stance against APA’s complaint on suspension of carbon credits issuance. Department of Public Information. https://dpi.gov.gy/govt-takes-strong-stance-against-apas-complaint-on-suspension-of-carbon-credits-issuance/
Stabroek News. (16 April 2023). APA decries attack by Jagdeo over criticism of carbon credits programme – lists questions that should be answered. Stabroek News. https://www.stabroeknews.com/2023/04/16/news/guyana/apa-decries-attack-by-jagdeo-over-criticism-of-carbon-credits-programme/
[5] Bulkan, J. & Palmer, J. (2023) Guyana. In: The Indigenous World 2023. Copenhagen, The International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs. pp. 390–91.
[6] Department of Public Information (2023) ‘Do not be misled’ by those attempting to stymie Amerindian development – VP Jagdeo urges. Department of Public Information. 6 July. https://dpi.gov.gy/do-not-be-misled-by-those-attempting-to-stymie-amerindian-development-vp-jagdeo-urges/.
[7] Bulkan, J., Palmer, J., Khusial, D., Bhulai, A., Ramdas, G., Brandli, A., Adams, V. & Dorwish, C. (2024) Response to the List of Issues concerning Guyana by Oil and Gas Governance Network. https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=INT%2FCCPR%2FCSS%2FGUY%2F57380&Lang=en.
[8] Department of Public Information (2022) Over US$112M to go to Amerindian communities from sale of carbon credits. Department of Public Information. 2 December. https://dpi.gov.gy/over-us112m-to-go-to-amerindian-communities-from-sale-of-carbon-credits/.
[9] Juan, C. (2024) Mahdia CoI calls tragedy… ‘An unfortunate outcome of several factors’. Guyana Chronicle. 20 January. https://guyanachronicle.com/author/clestine-juan/.
[10] Adams, V., Bhulai, A., Brandli, A., Bulkan, J., Casimero, I., Khusial, D., Lall, G., Persaud, J., Radzik, V., Sugrim, C. & Wilkinson, C. (2024) Questions for the Commissioners in the Mahdia fire CoI. Stabroek News. 27 January. https://www.stabroeknews.com/2024/01/27/opinion/letters/questions-for-the-commissioners-in-the-mahdia-fire-coi/.
[11] Stabroek News (2023) Annex: Fire safety in Mahdia dormitory was “major concern”. Stabroek News. 25 November. https://www.stabroeknews.com/2023/11/25/opinion/editorial/annex-fire-safety-in-mahdia-dormitory-was-major-concern/.
[12] Stabroek News (2023) Mahdia tragedy inquiry must take account of mining impact on indigenous communities – GHRA. Stabroek News. 28 May. https://www.stabroeknews.com/2023/05/28/news/guyana/mahdia-tragedy-inquiry-must-take-account-of-mining-impact-on-indigenous-communities-ghra/.
[13] Stabroek News (2023) Families of Mahdia fire victims get $5m from gov’t as settlement of any possible claims -legal agreement presented earlier this month. Stabroek News. 18 July. https://www.stabroeknews.com/2023/07/18/news/guyana/families-of-mahdia-fire-victims-get-5m-from-govt-as-settlement-of-any-possible-claims/.
[14] Kaieteur News (2024) Parents of Mahdia dorm boys protest lack of care by Govt. Kaieteur News. 24 January. https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2024/01/24/parents-of-mahdia-dorm-boys-protest-lack-of-care-by-govt/.
[15] Singh, J., John, D. & Thomas, J.K.-K. (2024) Presidential Commission of Inquiry into Mahdia Secondary School Female Dormitory Fire, p. 50. https://newsroom.gy/2024/01/20/full-report-from-coi-into-mahdia-dorm-fire-now-public/
[16] Preamble includes “Value the special place in our nation of the Indigenous Peoples and recognise their right as citizens to land and security and to their promulgation of policies for their communities.”
[17] Article 149G – “Indigenous peoples shall have the right to the protection, preservation and promulgation of their languages, cultural heritage and way of life”.
[18] Guyana chapters in The Indigenous World 2019 (p. 184-5), The Indigenous World 2020 (p. 428-31), The Indigenous World 2021 (p. 412-14), The Indigenous World 2022 (p. 414-17), The Indigenous World 2023 (p. 388-90).
[19] Harris-Smith, F. (2023) Isseneru loses case claiming illegal mining. Stabroek News. 8 September. https://www.stabroeknews.com/2023/09/08/news/guyana/isseneru-loses-case-claiming-illegal-mining/.
[20] Papannah, D. (2023) Gov’t lacks power to authorise ‘outsiders’ to mine on Indigenous lands, Sukhai says. Stabroek News. 6 May. https://www.stabroeknews.com/2023/05/06/news/guyana/govt-lacks-power-to-authorise-outsiders-to-mine-on-indigenous-lands-sukhai-says/.
[21] Amerindian Peoples Association, Upper Mazaruni District Council & Forest Peoples Programme, (2024) Submission on Guyana to the United Nations Human Rights Committee. https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=2703&Lang=en.
[22] https://faolex.fao.org/docs/pdf/guy3057.pdf for State Lands Regulations.
[23] Office of the President (2013) Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), version 4. Appendix II has the titling info for each community. https://www.greenpolicyplatform.org/national-documents/low-carbon-development-strategy-update-transforming-guyana%E2%80%99s-economy-while
Camacho-Nassar, C. (2016) Mid-Term Evaluation of the Amerindian Land Titling Project in Guyana. (December). https://guyanareddfund.org/images/stories/pdffiles/ALT_Mid-Term_Evaluation_Report.pdf.
[24] GRIF. Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund (2011) Amerindian land titling. https://guyanareddfund.org/index.php/grif-projects/amerindian-land-titling.
[25] Department of Public Information (2023) Gov’t to address land issue at Four Miles – Min Sukhai. Department of Public Information. 31 August. https://dpi.gov.gy/govt-to-address-land-issue-at-four-miles-min-sukhai/.
[26] Office of the President (2022) Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy 2030, pages 6 and 139. (July). https://lcds.gov.gy/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Guyanas-Low-Carbon-Development-Strategy-2030.pdf.
[27] Bulkan, J. (2023) Core issue is that vast amounts of money are being discussed which may involve loss of control by Amerindian titled Villages over their forests. Stabroek News. 11 January. https://www.stabroeknews.com/2023/01/11/opinion/letters/core-issue-is-that-vast-amounts-of-money-are-being-discussed-which-may-involve-loss-of-control-by-amerindian-titled-villages-over-their-forests/.
[28] Teixeira, G. (2022) Information received under the CERD’s Early Warning and Urgent Action Procedure. Office of the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance. 14 July.
