MINISTER of Indigenous People’s Affairs, Sydney Allicock asserted that land distribution to the indigenous people is of paramount importance for his ministry as well as the Government. Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle from his office at the Ministry of Indigenous People’s Affairs, Minister Allicock explained that land distribution in communities is an ongoing exercise and it has been long overdue.
“We recently acquired support from the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) – we intend to continue to hasten this distribution process.”
The Minister noted that this issue of land distribution to our indigenous people is one of importance should these communities develop and become economically viable.
“We need to see how best we can bring a closure to this land demarcation process. We are hoping that within the next five years we can have this all settled.”
“We have issues in mining and lumbering that presently affect these communities where land was allotted to persons to either mine or conduct lumbering. So we will have to work along with all parties concerned to be able to bring these issues to a peaceful closure.”
This, he noted, has been an ongoing issue that was reported. Some residents have explained that the community was allotted state land and then private stakeholders were given land to either mine or lumber, the Minister noted with much concern as he assured that this matter will be investigated.
With the proper allocation of land to these communities, residents will have the comfort of their allocated land and will be better able to plan. At the moment some communities cannot plan because they do not know their boundaries.
“It is a very tense situation. I know this will be a challenging project since there are many stakeholders that will be involved, some of which are the GGMC (Guyana Geology and Mines Commission), the Forestry Commission and other private business persons. I am hoping for an early meeting with all the stakeholders and hopefully we can come to a resolve,” Allicock stressed.
LEGAL IMPLICATIONS
He also noted that some communities in Region 8 are utilising state lands and are currently asking for these land titles to be extended. “We realised that there are some serious legal implications but now we are having with us David James, who is one of the only indigenous lawyers that is very much au fait with the issues affecting Amerindians.”
Minister Allicock further explained that the ministry needs to educate the indigenous people on their rights since many of them are not very familiar with what their rights entail. “We need them to know what their rights are and what the international laws that govern our first people are.”
“We would be guided by those laws and within the confines of the law we will be looking to grant these extensions.” He stressed that this is the right of our indigenous people.
He alluded to the fact that if more was done to educate the indigenous people of their rights, “they would have been able to be in a better position to negotiate or discuss matters pertaining to their land and its allocation.”
Valerie Garrido-Lowe, Minister within the Ministry of Indigenous People’s Affairs echoed Minister Allicock’s views and reiterated that the land distribution is very important.
She noted too that “we have instances where GGMC would have allocated lands for mining purposes within titled land of a community. We will need to have a meeting with all stakeholders so as to iron out these issues.”