If we want to sell our forest and trees, we should make the decision, not the other way around

Since colonial times, we Indigenous peoples have been exploited of our natural resources, such as gold, diamond, and timber among other precious commodities, which we had preserved over the years in Guyana and other countries in the Americas. For those of us who lived in remote areas in the interior of the country, we managed to conserved most of the above precious materials and forests because we rarely depended on cash for survival given our worldview as stewards of Mother Nature. Albeit, in recent times, a contrast in experience began to occur where so-called modern development is inevitably influencing our people, prompted by central government and others who became our neo-colonizers. In Guyana, they approached us with different strategies, like using the National Toshaos’ Council (NTC) to sell our forests.

The sale of our forests and trees to Hess Corporation, for carbon credits, coming from the country’s vast jungle to the sum of US $750 million, is a recent example. Additionally, this big trade-in by the government and the global energy giant will see the company purchasing 2.5 million carbon credits annually for the period 2016 to 2030. This bargain, which is for 14 years, shows that the government will gradually sell our forest to foreign companies, which no doubt permits them to pollute the environment in other areas in the country, as they please. Editor, please don’t get me wrong, I am not against material development for my people. The Indigenous population should receive equal benefits and enjoy economic investment opportunities in these changing times. However, the manner in how it is being done, by top downwards ad hoc consultation approaches in communities, is a cause for concern.

Most of my Indigenous brethren and sistren do not know what the sale of carbon means. And when the consultants come to talk to us, they use fancy and technical words which most of us don’t understand. This experience placed a challenge before us, which we ultimately agreed to by signing, not knowing it could very well be our death warrant. Thus, as we observe the government and the energy giant controlling our activities for survival, life in our communities gets harder for us. The blame will be on them because when the last tree dies, and the last river is poisoned, and the last fish is caught, then the authorities and the NTC, who are ‘yes’ men, will realize that we can’t eat money. We will definitely carry the NTC, who are puppets of the PPP administration, and governments in general, who control them to the Courts, because this body does not own the forests, and has no legal right to authorize the government or sell carbon credits to no one. Authorities and state government must know that Indigenous people were the first to inhabit this wild land which evolved into a nation state. Hence, we should be the ones to give government lands or dictate to them if we want to sell or not our forest and trees, not the other way around.

Furthermore, the father of the Indigenous people in Guyana, Mr. Stephen Campbell, who fought very hard to get our lands recognized, would have exercised critical analysis and logic to work out the pros and cons of the current issue, regarding the sale of our forests that are our supermarkets and other sources of survival. In concluding, I strongly believe that if Mr. Campbell was alive, he would have done it in a proper way, having the voice of the humble Indigenous people in communities make the decision and not the NTC, who are puppets of government, to sell our forests. Mr. Campbell worked tirelessly to get our lands recognized in his time. He is no doubt rolling in his tomb, knowing that fellow Amerindians are dismantling his hard work, which is to keep Indigenous people lands and forests protected for future generations in Guyana, which the governments and it’s puppet, the NTC, is now selling.