- Venezuela recently deployed military forces to the Guyanese border in what may be an attempt to annex part of the smaller country’s national territory.
- Media coverage has generally focused on the rich natural resources of the area which Venezuela may be interested in– including oil, gold, and diamonds–but others including the region’s Indigenous peoples say its ecological role is just as important for Guyana to protect.
- “If we truly value this land – not only for its natural resources but for its unique beauty, its cultural and biological diversity, and its outsized role in combating climate change – then we must defend it from foreign interests and extractive industries in equal measure,” argues a Goldman Prize-winning Indigenous leader from the region in a new op-ed.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has deployed military troops, light tanks, missile-equipped patrol boats, and armored carriers to the Guyanese border in what appears to be a brazen threat to claim two-thirds of the smaller country’s national territory by force, according to a recent report.
Despite a written agreement in December between Maduro and Guyanese President Irfaan Ali denouncing the use of force, Venezuela’s military deployment signals a departure from that agreement. It has the potential to escalate tensions further. This development happened days after Exxon Mobil announced its intention to continue oil exploration in the offshore territory contested by Venezuela.
We are Guyanese citizens, and as such, we stand in solidarity with the Guyanese government and reject any foreign claim on this land. We are also Indigenous peoples, and it is important to acknowledge that for our ancestors, all colonial borders were arbitrary at the time of their occurrence. They cut between our customary lands, separating peoples who share a language and culture, and depriving people of access to sacred sites.
All media coverage lists the rich natural resources of the Essequibo region, including oil, gold, and diamonds. However, as the global community becomes more aware of human-driven climate change and the urgent need to mitigate its effects, there is a notable lack of discussion about the immense ecological importance of the region, which plays an outsized role in regulating rainfall across the continent. There is also little mention of the Indigenous peoples who live there and hold those lands sacred to them.
“We do not recognize borders”
Guyana’s western border, disputed by Venezuela, is over 1,800 kilometers and largely unmarked, winding through dense rainforest, rivers, and savannah, with few paved roads. The majority of inhabitants on all sides of this border are Indigenous peoples. Families walk or travel by river to villages on each side, sharing languages, spiritual beliefs, and history. Some of us are taught English in school, and others are taught Spanish or Portuguese, but the languages we speak at home vary from north to south along the border and include Warau, Karina, Arekuna, Patamona, Lokono (Arawak), Akawaio, Macushi, Wapichan and Wai-Wai.
Our people have moved between the borders of Venezuela and Guyana since time immemorial. We do not recognize borders. We recognize the river that gets us to one place. We recognize the mountain we must cross to get to one place.
This does not mean to imply that Maduro’s threat of annexation is irrelevant to us — the opposite is true. Since Maduro’s announcements, many families have fled their villages out of fear of a military invasion.
See related: Indigenous communities fear Venezuela’s move to annex oil-rich region
Thermostat of the Amazon
The Essequibo is part of a unique geography known as the Guiana Shield. Located at the start of two atmospheric rivers that carry moisture across South America, it plays an outsized role in stabilizing weather patterns and protecting forests in the Amazon Basin and the continent as a whole. A 2017 study found that deforesting less than a third of the region would directly lead to dramatic changes in temperature and rainfall in areas up to 4,000 kilometers away and cause more dry months in up to 64% of the Amazon basin.
This has caused some scientists to refer to the region as a hot-spot, or a “thermostat,” its forests regulating temperatures across the Amazon basin and capturing millions of tons of carbon in the process.
Researchers warn that the Amazon is nearing a critical ‘tipping point.‘ Once a certain threshold of deforestation is crossed, the world’s largest tropical forest would lose the necessary moisture to sustain itself, causing a mass die-off of trees and incalculable damage to life on our planet.
Illegal mining is the main driver of deforestation on both sides of the border, although rates remain higher on the Venezuelan side. Neither government has so much as attempted to protect this region from the illegal gold mines that are controlled by dangerous mafias. Meanwhile, their impacts go unchecked, bringing violence, alcohol, and illness into our communities and contaminating the rivers with mercury that our people depend on for fishing, drinking, bathing, and cooking.
Land of Riches
Many Indigenous villages in Guyana lie in savanna and heavily forested areas. The forests are a vital part of our customary lands – we hunt, fish, and farm there. However, most of these lands are untitled. To protect them from deforestation, many Indigenous councils are attempting to secure collective titles to the lands, which would be managed at a district level.
The approach would be mutually beneficial to both Indigenous communities and the government of Guyana, which has publicly stated its aim to increase protected areas by two million hectares.
Studies have shown that forested lands managed by Indigenous peoples experience less deforestation, store more carbon, and maintain higher rates of biodiversity than publicly or privately protected lands.
Since Exxon Mobil began extracting oil off Guyana’s coast in late 2019, we are told we have become a rich nation. We now produce 400,000 barrels of oil and gas daily and continue receiving new bids for oil exploration in shallow and deep water blocks. However, barrels of oil are a very limited way to measure a country’s riches.
If we truly value this land – not only for its natural resources but for its unique beauty, its cultural and biological diversity, and its outsized role in combating climate change – then we must defend it from foreign interests and extractive industries in equal measure.
Essequibo is our home. To protect this land and its people, our voices must be heard.
Jean La Rose is a Lokono woman and Executive Director of the Amerindian Peoples Association of Guyana (APA), a non-governmental organization that has advocated and promoted the rights and development of the Indigenous peoples of Guyana since 1991. La Rose was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2002 for coordinating the first Indigenous land rights lawsuit in Guyana.
Related audio from Mongabay’s podcast: A conversation about Guyana’s opening up of offshore areas for oil drilling with journalist Amy Westervelt, listen here:
See related:
Oil production or carbon neutrality? Why not both, Guyana says
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