Wapichan people and Guyanese Human rights organisation call for road plans to be halted in Southern Guyana

Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) and Wapichan Communities in the Rupununi are raising major concerns over road building plans affecting pristine forest in the south of the country on lands within Wapichan territory. The planned road being built from Brazil would cut through the village of Parabara in the South Rupununi and open up old growth rainforest along a route to the Essequibo River and beyond as far as Suriname. Affected Wapichan villages in Guyana have expressed alarm on hearing this news. The South Rupununi Districts Toshaos Council met at the end of November and have sent a letter to the government of Guyana to demand more information and to communicate solid opposition to any road building plans that may threaten their forests and risk the destruction of their traditional lands that are still pending legal recognition more than 45 years after independence from Britain.

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