Evaluating Indigenous Resource Use in the Kanuku Mountains

Degree Name

MA in International and Intercultural Management

First Advisor

Sora Friedman

Abstract

A region of rich biological and cultural diversity, the Kanuku Mountains in southern Guyana have been identified as one of five priority sites in the initiative to establish a system of protected areas in Guyana. In 2000, the Government of Guyana invited Conservation International Guyana to be the lead agency to design a program of consultations with stakeholders, including the Indigenous communities located in the vicinity of the mountains. In January of 2001, I was asked to lead the process of developing and implementing a participatory process that engaged these communities in studying the ways in which they use the resources of the Kanuku Mountains.

A design team with local experience and knowledge of the communities collaborated to develop the methodology of the Community Resource Evaluation (CRE). This paper presents the design and implementation of the methodology of the CRE workshops conducted in eighteen communities. Based on adapted Participatory Rural Appraisal techniques, the workshops were a participatory process that created opportunities and tools that would enable participants and the communities at large to share their knowledge, and to gather information about what resources are used, and when and where that use occurs.

The methodology succeeded in enabling the community participants and the CIG team to produce a profile of Indigenous resource use in the Kanuku Mountains - a core data set required for designing a proposal and management plan for a new protected area.

Disciplines

Agricultural and Resource Economics | Demography, Population, and Ecology | Rural Sociology

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