Guidelines for the management of the Ye'kwana and Sanema territories in the Caura River basin in Venezuela

This participatory study on natural resources, their uses and proposals for their management, was carried out by the Indigenous Organisation of the Caura River Basin (KUYUJANI) and the National Experimental University of Central Guyana Anthropology Department, in conjunction with the Ye'kwana and Sanema communities, with support from Forest Peoples Programme. 

Introduction by authors

As Ye'kwana and Sanema indigenous peoples who live in the Caura River basin, we have developed this Management Plan in order to reflect on our future development and on the necessary activities needed to ensure that our future is sustainable. With this work, we are preparing the way for when land titles are granted for the lands that we occupy in the Caura basin in order that we will have the capability to manage our resources in the best way possible, and so that we have a clear vision of the actions that we should take to benefit our inhabitants now and in the future. 

We hope that through this plan we will be able to exhibit our traditional knowledge as well as that of our youngsters, who have been trained as parabiologists, who have many expertise in environmental issues. We also exhibit in this document the vision of scientists on certain issues as well as some explanations for non-indigenous people on our vision of nature. 

The management that we envisage furthering is an active management, meaning that we want to continue using the resources, but at the same time we want to take measures to prevent them running out. 

The management plan is available in Spanish or Ye'kwana only.