Guyana's environment is in danger of wholesale destruction. In the name of economic liberalization, this small, indebted country is promoting a dramatic escalation of logging, mining and other forms of extraction. In the 1990s, millions of hectares of rainforest have been leased to foreign companies for logging, while gold mining is going through a new and devastating boom. The Omai gold mine disaster of August 1995 was dramatic evidence of the potential for catastrophe. At the centre of Guyana's ecological crisis stands the country's indigenous population, historically marginalized and now threatened by the invasion of loggers, miners and ranchers. Their claims to land titles have long been ignored, and the present government strategy is worsening their chances of survival. This book describes the onslaught on the country's environment and the forces - economic and political - behind it. Looking at the role of the IMF, World Bank and foreign companies, Marcus Colchester shows how structural adjustment has paved the way for extraction-based development. He demonstrates how internal politics and external economic interests have combined in forcing Guyana to cash in its resources for short-term gain.

Marcus Colchester

From Revolutionary Movements to Political Parties

Guyana’s PPP: From Socialism to National Democracy

Deonandan, Kalowatie

2007

https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230609778_6 [Citations: 0]

UAV-derived data for mapping change on a swidden agriculture plot: preliminary results from a pilot study

Cummings, Anthony R.

Karale, Yogita

Cummings, Garvin R.

Hamer, Esan

Moses, Persaud

Norman, Zacharias

Captain, Victor

International Journal of Remote Sensing, Vol. 38 (2017), Iss. 8-10 P.2066

https://doi.org/10.1080/01431161.2017.1295487 [Citations: 14]

Small-Scale Gold Mining and Environmental Policy Challenges in Guyana: Protection or Pollution

Roopnarine, Lomarsh

Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Vol. 31 (2006), Iss. 61 P.115

https://doi.org/10.1080/08263663.2006.10816892 [Citations: 6]

Engineering Vulnerability

Accountability and the Militarization of Technoscience

2022

https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478022725-007 [Citations: 0]

Advances in Geocomputation

Does the Location of Amerindian Communities Provide Signals About the Spatial Distribution of Tree and Palm Species?

Sivasailam, Aravind

Cummings, Anthony R.

2017

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22786-3_16 [Citations: 0]

Implications of forest type and land tenure diversity for the sustainability of ecosystem services provided by northern Amazonia’s multiple-use tree species

Cummings, Anthony R.

Read, Jane M.

Fragoso, Jose M. V.

Landscape Ecology, Vol. 33 (2018), Iss. 3 P.423

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-018-0614-3 [Citations: 2]

Forest Grabbing Through Forest Concession Practices: The Case of Guyana

Bulkan, Janette

Journal of Sustainable Forestry, Vol. 33 (2014), Iss. 4 P.407

https://doi.org/10.1080/10549811.2014.899502 [Citations: 13]

Engineering Vulnerability

Disaster Evidence

2022

https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478022725-002 [Citations: 0]

Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures

Environment and Nature in the Amazon

Sponsel, Leslie E.

2014

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3934-5_8569-2 [Citations: 0]

Patronage and empowerment in the central Amazon

Hoefle, Scott William

Bulletin of Latin American Research, Vol. 19 (2000), Iss. 4 P.479

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1470-9856.2000.tb00120.x [Citations: 7]

How REDD+ governs: Multiple forest environmentalities in Guyana and Suriname

Collins, Yolanda Ariadne

Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, Vol. 3 (2020), Iss. 2 P.323

https://doi.org/10.1177/2514848619860748 [Citations: 6]

Long-term effect of timber harvesting in the Bartica Triangle, Central Guyana

ter Steege, Hans

Welch, Ivan

Zagt, Roderick

Forest Ecology and Management, Vol. 170 (2002), Iss. 1-3 P.127

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-1127(01)00777-0 [Citations: 33]

Freshwater fishes of northern South America: a need for field guides

Lowe-McConnell>, Rosemary

Environmental Biology of Fishes, Vol. 53 (1998), Iss. 1 P.111

https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007413305323 [Citations: 0]

Illegal Logging by Asian-Owned Enterprises in Guyana, South America

Bulkan, Janette

Palmer, John

(2008)

https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2882927 [Citations: 1]

The challenge of climate change adaptation in Guyana

Hickey, Catherine

Weis, Tony

Climate and Development, Vol. 4 (2012), Iss. 1 P.66

https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2012.661036 [Citations: 9]

Engineering Vulnerability

“Where Would I Go? There Was No Place with No Water”

2022

https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478022725-001 [Citations: 0]

BREAKING THE RINGS OF FOREST CORRUPTION: STEPS TOWARDS BETTER FOREST GOVERNANCE

BULKAN, JANETTE

PALMER, JOHN

Forests, Trees and Livelihoods, Vol. 18 (2008), Iss. 2 P.103

https://doi.org/10.1080/14728028.2008.9752624 [Citations: 8]

Where There Is No Company: Indigenous Peoples, Sustainability, and the Challenges of Mid-Stream Mining Reforms in Guyana's Small-Scale Gold Sector

Hennessy, Logan

New Political Economy, Vol. 20 (2015), Iss. 1 P.126

https://doi.org/10.1080/13563467.2014.914158 [Citations: 12]

An analysis of the influence of the human presence on the distribution of provisioning ecosystem services: A Guyana case study

Shah, Muna

Cummings, Anthony R.

Ecological Indicators, Vol. 122 (2021), Iss. P.107255

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.107255 [Citations: 2]

International Businesses and the Challenges of Poverty in the Developing World

Forestry, Gold Mining and Amerindians: The Troubling Example of Samling in Guyana

Whiteman, Gail

2004

https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230522503_12 [Citations: 6]

Colonial residue: REDD+, territorialisation and the racialized subject in Guyana and Suriname

Collins, Yolanda Ariadne

Geoforum, Vol. 106 (2019), Iss. P.38

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2019.07.019 [Citations: 12]

Causes and Consequences of a Tropical Forest Gold Rush in the Guiana Shield, South America

Hammond, David S.

Gond, Valéry

Thoisy, Benoit de

Forget, Pierre-Michel

DeDijn, Bart P. E.

AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment, Vol. 36 (2007), Iss. 8 P.661

https://doi.org/10.1579/0044-7447(2007)36[661:CACOAT]2.0.CO;2 [Citations: 74]

Engineering Vulnerability

Materializing Race and Climate Change

2022

https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478022725-009 [Citations: 0]

Drawing on traditional knowledge to identify and describe ecosystem services associated with Northern Amazon’s multiple-use plants

Cummings, Anthony R.

Read, Jane M.

International Journal of Biodiversity Science, Ecosystem Services & Management, Vol. 12 (2016), Iss. 1-2 P.39

https://doi.org/10.1080/21513732.2015.1136841 [Citations: 20]

Rentier nation: Landlordism, patronage and power in Guyana’s gold mining sector

Bulkan, Janette

Palmer, John

The Extractive Industries and Society, Vol. 3 (2016), Iss. 3 P.676

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2016.05.001 [Citations: 19]

Engineering Vulnerability

The Racial Politics of Settlers

2022

https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478022725-003 [Citations: 0]

The political ecology of flood hazard in urban Guyana

Pelling, Mark

Geoforum, Vol. 30 (1999), Iss. 3 P.249

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0016-7185(99)00015-9 [Citations: 130]

Same Forest, Different Countries

Kingsbury, Nancy D.

Journal of Sustainable Forestry, Vol. 17 (2003), Iss. 1-2 P.171

https://doi.org/10.1300/J091v17n01_10 [Citations: 3]

An exploratory analysis of stakeholders and their influence on human–Jaguar conflict in Guyana

Cummings, Anthony R.

(2021) P.1

https://doi.org/10.1080/10871209.2021.1967524 [Citations: 0]

Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures

Environment and Nature in the Amazon

Sponsel, Leslie E.

2016

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7747-7_8569 [Citations: 0]

Twisting the knife: Frontier violence in the central Amazon of Brazil

Hoefle, Scott William

Journal of Peasant Studies, Vol. 33 (2006), Iss. 3 P.445

https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150601062993 [Citations: 14]

Engineering Vulnerability

References

2022

https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478022725-011 [Citations: 0]

Engineering Vulnerability

Notes

2022

https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478022725-010 [Citations: 0]

Re-Placing Indigenous Territory: Villagization and the Transformation of Amerindian Environments Under “Cooperative Socialism” in Guyana

Hennessy, Logan A.

Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 103 (2013), Iss. 5 P.1242

https://doi.org/10.1080/00045608.2012.740382 [Citations: 12]

Engineering Vulnerability

Compensation and Resettlement

2022

https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478022725-005 [Citations: 0]

Engineering Vulnerability

The Ordinary

2022

https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478022725-008 [Citations: 0]

Engineering Vulnerability

Engineering, Archives, and Experts

2022

https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478022725-004 [Citations: 0]

Engineering Vulnerability

Love Stories

2022

https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478022725-006 [Citations: 0]