APA..Newsletter # 3
National News..Moruca Land Council Mapping Project Draws To A Close

MLC mapping team in training

The Moruca Land Council (MLC) mapping project is entering its final phase with the production of maps based on information coming out of the work done in the Moruca Sub-region. These maps will provide documented information on the communities such as cultural sites, farming, hunting and fishing grounds, medicinal plants and other resources.

The MLC is a body made up of six communities Santa Rosa, Kwebana, Asakata, Manawarin, Waramuri, and Barama Mouth. Its main aim at this time is to document Amerindian occupation and use of the area and to develop a long term plan for sustain- able use and management activities.

Four persons from the area have been using GPS (Global Positioning System) technology to document information in the field and later transfer them to base maps. They mappers were in the field for some fifteen weeks gathering and plotting data.

The villages involved in the project had all rejected the government’s demarcation programme citing insufficient land for their population and subsistence needs. They also claim that they do not have title to all of their ancestral lands.