WWF contributes $2.4M to GGDMA educational outreach programmes
OFFICIALS of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) will, over the next six weeks, conduct educational outreach programmes in hinterland and coastal communities on environmental issues and challenges in gold mining.
The aim is to raise public awareness of the negative impacts of gold-mining activities on the physical environment and promote best practices for the mitigation of such impacts.
The campaign will cost $3M and WWF has contributed $2.4M in the form of a grant and GGDMA $600,000.
An agreement to release WWF funding to the GGDMA was signed Wednesday in the boardroom of the former.
Country Manager of the WWF Guyana Office, Dr. Patrick Williams; WWF Regional Coordinator for Gold Mining Pollution Abatement, Mr. Rickford Vieira; Accountant/Grant Manager WWF Guianas, Ms. Tonia Newton; President of GGDMA, Mr. Patrick Harding and Administrative Coordinator of GGDMA, Mr. Colin Sparman were among those present.
In remarks before the signing, Williams observed that small and medium-scale gold mining in Guyana has a number of issues that should be brought to the attention of all stakeholders with a view to encouraging behaviour change by all concerned.
He expressed hopes that the WWF would be just one in another set of grants in the next cycle of programme activities in support of the GGDMA.
“We, at WWF, have a feeling that, if we work very closely with the association and its members, we will be able to achieve our objective of pollution abatement in gold mining as a main plank in our environmental conservation programme for the benefit of present and future generations,” Williams said.
The outreach teams will use a variety of media to get their message across including radio, television and newspapers, handouts, brochures and leaflets, direct visits and interactions with miners in the hinterland communities, with a unique feature being direct visits to coastal villages and interactions with relatives and friends of miners living in these villages.
Vieira said that many of the small and medium-scale miners hail from villages on the coast and the outreach teams will be talking to their relatives and friends there, because it is felt that it would be wise for them to get some knowledge of what is being done in the hinterland and the issues and challenges that have to be confronted to ensure environmentally friendly mining.
The outreach will cover a wide swath of mining communities, including areas in the Potaro, Cuyuni/Mazaruni, Barima/Waini as well as coastal communities such as Ann’s Grove on the East Coast of Demerara and Mocha, on the East Bank of Demerara, among others, for completion before year end.
Harding and Sparman both thanked WWF for the donation to undertake the assignment which is in line with the policies of the GGDMA.
They acknowledged that it would, undoubtedly, be beneficial to the sector as a whole.