As part of expansive plans for the preservation of the nation’s biodiversity landscape, Indigenous women are playing a vital role in advancing monitoring and conservation efforts. With the help of the government, international agencies, and non-governmental organisations, technology is playing an increasingly important role in these initiatives.
Speaking on the United for Biodiversity – The Alliance Podcast last week, Annette Arjoon-Martins, Project Director of the Guyana Marine Conservation Society (GMCS), emphasised the importance of Guyana’s biodiversity community.
She said that a very important part of the country’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) 2030 and mangrove conservation mission entails the ecosystem monitoring services provided by those involved; pointing out the instrumental role being played by Indigenous women.
“It is very important as well that we work with people that live in these forested landscapes… what we did, our NGO, is that we looked at alternative livelihoods for the Warao communities in the Barima-Mora passage and we thought let’s look at something that is very non-traditional in the sense that we could use technology as a means of the girls earning an income.”
Arjoon-Martins explained that the NGO set out to find women who had an interest in technology and chose information technology officers in the communities who were already trained by the government, then added to their knowledge, particularly through their drone flying programme.
Arjoon-Martins said, “We started out with the UAVs, aerial drones to get the basic monitoring skills, and they (indigenous women) were then paid to go out every six months to monitor the mangrove forest, to collect the data, to report any infractions to the agencies that had the legal remit to take remedial action and after that we armed them with the skills on how to operate remote operated vehicles… drones that are under water… they did some basic work with the maritime administration offshore initially and now these girls are part of the team that is working with a project under the National Agriculture Research Institute to basically map that blue carbon in the mangroves.”
Guyana continues to lead the way in offering solutions to global challenges, including climate security. The country’s biodiversity and forest cover, in particular, remain vital global assets in this regard. Carbon mapping allows authorities to monitor carbon emissions and storage using geographical information systems and other mapping technologies.
