Amerindian Ministry to distribute 25 more land titles this year

Jan 14, 2024 News

Kaieteur News – The Government of Guyana intends to distribute 25 land titles to Indigenous Communities this year. This is according to Minister of Amerindian Affairs Pauline Sukhai.

Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Pauline Sukhai

The Minister was at the time speaking at her year-end press conference last week. Only six titles were distributed last year.

The Amerindian Land Titling (ALT) Project was one that commenced in 2013 and sought to have land titles issued and demarcation processes completed in all Amerindian villages that submitted requests.

In her address to the media, the minister said that in terms of land titling, her ministry has made tremendous success in this area as compared to the previous government. The minister said that for the three years government has been in office, it has been able to establish a functioning unit that takes seriously, the titling of lands for Amerindians.

“Last year we titled 6, and 25,677 Amerindians residents across our country basically are much more land secured,” the minister said. Minister Sukhai said from the current census data, it shows Amerindian population is about 10 percent of the country’s population and that they occupy 16.48 percent of Guyana’s land mass. She added that this is a commendable move from 6 percent over the past years.

In 2022, the minister said five titles were issued.

However, this year Minister Sukhai said her ministry is to distribute 25 more, of which 22 villages are seeking approval for their land extensions and three villages are first-timers for titles.

The Indigenous villages that received their titles last year were Four Miles Village in Region One, Capoey, Akawini, Wakapoa, and Mashaboo village all of Region Two, and Paramakatoi of Region Eight.

“An application comes in but it is not necessarily that we just sign off on it. We have to go down to the ground, do consultations with various stakeholders, with national institutions, national commissions, then complied reports with findings and recommendations. This would be then examined at a technical level then be examined at the ministerial level before I approved of the matter going forward,” she explained of the process.

Minister Sukhai noted that investigations for 18 of the 23 applications for land tiles have completed. The others are expected to be completed in short order.

Additionally, the minister disclosed that 39 demarcations are to be completed this year.

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Amerindian Ministry, distribute, land titles, Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Pauline Sukhai

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