“Wapichan people expose rights violations and growing threats to their forest and communities from mining and illegal resource use” - 19 September 2017

…Amidst increasing concerns about threats to their forests, wetlands and way of life, the Wapichan People of Guyana…have set up their own ground-breaking system to defend their human rights and monitor their ancestral lands against harmful development…Today, the Wapichan People are launching a locally owned and managed website to present their monitoring information on the internet. The web site can be accessed here: http://wapichanao.communitylands.org/...Our territory is under pressure from rampant mining and plans for agribusiness and road developments. Uncontrolled mining expansion on our lands is resulting in deforestation, desecration of sacred sites and irreparable damage to our creeks, rivers and water sources. The situation is getting worse and threats are increasing. This is why we have decided to watch over our lands and forests, and to get organised to collect and publish information to tell the world what is going on. [Refers to Guyana Goldstrike Inc of Canada]