ISSUES like titling of Amerindians lands without recognition of traditional lands are often an underlying cause of conflict, especially in a protracted crisis.

Equally, land titling disputes tend to increase in the post–conflict period, with a large proportion of the Amerindian population frequently claiming or reclaiming access to their ancestral lands and land-based resources. Access to titled lands affects the Amerindian people’s choice to return and their prospects of recovery.
This issue of land titling of Amerindian lands should be incorporated and settled peacefully in conflict and post-conflict situations. It will explore the link between disputed lands, and government, discusses the challenges for a more integrated response and presents the findings from selected case studies, including all the Amerindian communities.
In much of the government agencies on land issues here in Guyana there is a lack of appropriate information about ancestral lands belonging to Amerindians and it hinders development planning and programmers and hampers efforts to monitor mining and deforestation. The government and UNDP can bring together Amerindian communities to gather and monitor locally obtained verifiable information about actual living conditions.
The titling of these lands requires the government to do several specific things so they can improve the land base for farming if it is demarcated to show ownership.

MOHAMED KHAN