-says Minister Sukhai

WITH the aim of addressing all land titling and demarcations in hinterland communities by 2024, much focus will be placed on the distribution of land extensions this year, Amerindian Affairs Minister Pauline Sukhai has said.

Sukhai recently told the Guyana Chronicle that there are 26 remaining titles which have to be addressed within a three-year period.

Challenged with a backlog, the ministry in 2022 had sought an extension to address all outstanding land titles and demarcations.

“For this year, we are proceeding to address the extensions. We have approximately 26 extensions that we will have to complete within a three-year period,” Sukhai said adding:
“We usually work on a first-come, first-served basis.”

She explained to this publication that for the application for the extension, the ministry will look at the date and the first village that applied would form part of the first list that will see their extensions addressed.

Currently, the ministry is in the process of ratifying its work programme for this year and once this has been completed and approved by the ministry’s board, surveys and further investigations will commence to roll out distribution of the land extensions.

Meanwhile in 2022, the ministry had managed to distribute two absolute grants and five certificates of title.

Absolute grants were handed over to the village leaders of Capoey and Mashabo in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam).

The certificates of title were delivered to the leaders of St Monica/Karawab and Mainstay/Whyaka Village, also located in Region Two. Titles were also delivered to the village leaders of Tasserene and Kangaruma in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) and Yupukari in Region Nine (Upper Takutu- Upper Essequibo).

“In 2022 our Amerindian land-titling unit proceeded with their work schedule which included the reviewing of the investigations that took place prior to our come back [to] office. The time that elapsed was about seven years since 2015 to 2020 and 2021,” Sukhai said.

“We spent the time updating those investigations, making sure that the targeted communities’ documentation, agreements remain the same and that everyone that is now new in the council was aware of the details of negotiations and investigations that took place prior, so that took some time,” she further explained.

The minister reminded that the process can often be tedious and it often takes lengthy periods of time to conduct field surveys and investigations.

“Because its field exercise which takes you around mountains and grasslands and savannahs and wetlands, it takes time. Those were completed in 2022,” she said.

In 2013, the PPP/C government signed off on the implementation of the $2.2 billion (US$11 million) Amerindian Land Titling and Demarcation project, which was later concluded in 2016.

The functioning unit of the project was disbanded by the previous administration, but was later restored when the President Irfaan Ali-led government made good on its promise to resuscitate the project, with a proposed 2021 budgetary allocation of $630 million.

An additional $561.6 million was allocated in Budget 2022 to achieve a target of 20 certificates of title.

The ALT project has three primary goals: completion of land-titling issues and demarcation process for all Indigenous villages that submitted requests; increased use of existing and alternative mechanisms to resolve land-titling disputes; and a communication strategy, including a handbook describing the process of titling, demarcation, and socio-economic impact of secured land tenure.