A practical guide for Indigenous Peoples in Guyana
Table 1: Information that may be needed (continued)
Information
Needed
Project
Impacts
Questions to be Answered
1. Will an ESIA be done?
2. What kind of ESIA?
3. What standards will the
consultants follow?
4. How can our people be involved?
5. How will/could rights and freedoms
be affected?
6. What will the environmental
impacts be?
7. What will the social and livelihood
impacts be?
8. What will/could be the effects on
our Amerindian way of life?
9. How will they affect groups
differently, like men and women?
10. What is the company’s or the
government’s plan to avoid these
impacts?
11. What emergency plans exist?
Why they are Important
1. Some types of projects may not require an impact
assessment under Guyanese Law. They might, however, be
required to do so under international law and “best
practice” standards;
2. Companies will often try to “fragment” the ESIA process
into smaller parts, or do separate assessments for different
parts of a project. For example, a mine, the dam that will
power it, or the road that will lead to it. This is wrong
because it does not consider the “cumulative” or collective
impacts that those projects will together have on our
territory;
3. See the guide on Indigenous participation in Environmental
and Social Impact Assessments. We have a right to be
involved, so we need to insist that we are!
Sources of Information
Material from and
meetings with the
proponent or the
consultants they hire
to do the ESIA;
The draft ESIA;
Our own community
studies on impacts or
interviews with key
groups in the
community;
Reviewing reports
about impacts in other
Indigenous
communities — from
the media or Internet;
Visits to affected
communities;
Company plans.
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