Indigenous Women in Guyana Utilize Flying Drones and Data Collection to Combat Climate Change

View of the seawall during sunset in Georgetown, Guyana, Wednesday, April 19, 2023. The centuries-old sea defense system was created by the Dutch during the colonial era. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

The Associated Press

A group of Indigenous women in northern Guyana are using drones to scan mangrove forests for illegal cutting and collecting soil samples and mangrove litter to measure the carbon held in remote coastal ecosystems.

This data could help the government create policies and programs to protect critical areas. Guyana is a small nation with a 285-mile-long coastline whose coastal plains lie an average of 6 feet below sea level.

The coastline depends on a centuries-old sea defense system created by the Dutch during the colonial era. Rising sea levels and intensified storm surges in Guyana would expose 100% of the country’s coastal agriculture and 66.4% of coastal urban areas to flooding and coastal erosion.

The women’s work is considered key for Guyana, which is in the midst of an oil boom expected to make it the world’s fourth-largest offshore oil producer, raising concerns about potential oil spills and the oil’s contribution to climate change.

“We are merging traditional knowledge and scientific research to get all this information that we need but never had before and couldn’t afford to get,” said Annette Arjoon-Martins, head of Guyana’s Marine Conservation Society.

The women’s work is considered key for Guyana, a small nation about the size of Britain that has a 285-mile-long (459 kilometers) coastline whose coastal plains lie an average of 6 feet (2 meters) below sea level. The coastline depends on a centuries-old sea defense system created by the Dutch during the colonial era. It includes a 280-mile (450-kilometer) seawall and relies on dozens of workers who set alarms night and day to manually open and close sluice gates known as “kokers” that prevent the Atlantic Ocean from flooding Guyana.

By the mid-1990s, the Inter-American Development Bank already was advising Guyana to relocate communities inland since most of its 791,000 people live along the coast, and much of its economic activity and agriculture are based there. But people have been reluctant to leave.