Current Threats
• Unregulated tourism
• Wildfires
• Population growth
• Infrastructure incompatible with the landscape and cultural values
• Insufficient staff and lack of management infrastructure
• Hydroelectric developments
• Management conflicts with indigenous communities
Construction of electrical lines heading towards Brazil has
caused an impact on the environment and on the communities
Unregulated Tourism
Troncal 10 provides access to Canaima's Eastern Sector. Visitors, park inhabitants and nearby residents all use the highway. Tourism flow is usually greatest during August, December and Saint's Week (the week before Easter), although the exact number of people is hard to determine since not every recreation site has visitor registries and there are no entrance fees. In places like Paraitepui de Roraima, the Luepa Visitor's Center and Jaspe Creek, there are visitor registries. Roraima receives 3,000 people per year, and Jaspe Creek receives up to 4,000 just during Saint's Week. During the tourism season, as the number of visitors increases so too does the amount of solid waste; it increases so much that it exceeds the capacity of the Great Savannah's Municipal Waste Collection.
In Roraima Tepui's case, constant hiker presence has damaged tepui vegetation. This problem is critical in the area surrounding the place called "Hoteles," which is where hikers camp. There is also garbage accumulation in the most visited places on the tepui (Los Hoteles, El Carro, La Ventana, Los Jacuzzis) and along the trail. In addition, use of soaps, detergents and shampoo degrades water and soil quality (Pérez 2003). These reasons forced INPARQUES to restrict access to the tepui during 1995 and 1996 in order to let Roraima's high tepui ecosystems recover. However, this measure was not well received by some inhabitants of neighboring Kumarakapai, who are, for the most part, dependent on income from tourism. They burned the park guard station located on the highway and the entrance to Paraitepui de Roraima.
Visitors also create problems because they use roads or drive in unauthorized areas. Off-road, 4x4 vehicles are the main culprits. People drive off-road, creating new tracks in the savannah, because the principal road is full of mud, they want to reach a certain destination quickly and easily or they want to test their off-road vehicles and have fun (called "rustiquear"). As a result, vegetation is lost, the soil erodes and the landscape is degraded
Opening of unauthorized roads is a constant problem
Another problem associated with tourists is unauthorized extraction of certain minerals found along different recreation areas or hiking trails. For example, on Roraima's summit, at a place called the "Crystal Valley," quartz extraction has been excessive. Despite the rigorous existing controls, some tourists take part of the quartz as a souvenir. The rock pieces are confiscated when hiking groups are routinely searched after their hike. Tourists also try to extract from the volcanic rock outcropping in Jaspe Creek.
Wild fires
During the dry season, human-caused wildfires are common. Mostly, they originate from Pemóns who burn to prepare their land for cultivation, to hunt, to clear trails and roads, to scare away dangerous animals, to communicate and to clear and maintain the savannahs in order to avoid future large and devastating wildfires (Rodríguez 2004).
The first recorded large wildfire, called the "great cloud of smoke," dates back to 1926. In 1940, another wildfire of similar proportions occurred and in 1979 another large wildfire affected the sectors of Luepa, Parupa and Kavanayén. Since CVG-Edelca's implementation of the Upper Caroní River Basin Wildfire Control Program, the wildfires have diminished in frequency and extension. In 2004, only 1,985.5 hectares were affected: 1,594.25 hectares of savannah and 5.25 hectares of primary forest (CVG - Edelca 2004b).
Population growth
In 1982, the total indigenous population in Canaima National Park was 5,537 inhabitants; in 1992, it was 8,094 (OCEI 1994) and unofficial data estimate that the current population is 11,836 inhabitants (Medina personal communication 2004). Resource use within the park by inhabitants includes agricultural activities (using slash and burn style methods), fishing, hunting and collecting. Increased population growth and changes in the settlement patterns have increased pressure on a variety of natural resources over the years.
One consequence of the concentrations of indigenous people in several larger communities is that their agricultural plots are also concentrated in the nearby areas. In the community of Kavanayén, where agriculture is concentrated in Pakairao Valley, the soils have lost fertility and the farmers have had to move to cultivate other areas.
It is estimated that there are 1,080 km2 of small farms within the upper Caroní River Basin, including areas that are outside of Canaima (CVG - Edelca 2004a). Normally, each small farm is about 1/2 hectare and the main crop is yucca, of which cassava, manioc and fermented drinks like "cachiri" and "parakari" are made. Other crops include chilli, mapuey (tropical herb), yautia, sweet potato, bananas, pineapple and plantain.
Fish is the main source of animal protein, and people fish for 24 species. There is some hunting, although to a lesser degree than fishing because large animals are not that common. Preferred species include paca (Agouti paca), peccaries (Tayassu tajacu and Tayassu pecari) and tapir (Tapirus terrestris). There is no scientific evidence that proves that hunting/ fishing is affecting fauna populations; nonetheless, the indigenous people claim that they have observed a reduction in the number of hunted species since it is harder for them to catch their prey.
The indigenous communities also use non-timber forest products. One particularly important resource is moriche palm fronds (Mauritia flexuosa) that they use to make roofs. Population growth has increased demand for this resource, and now certain moriche groves have been negatively impacted by overharvest.
Tourism has also increased the demand for certain resources used in indigenous crafts, such as the jasper volcanic rock and kaolin, a type of very white, pure clay.
Infrastructure incompatible with the landscape and cultural values
For many years, the National Parks Institute has had a consistent policy that any building within the national park should be in harmony with the environment. In the case of Canaima National Park, this is true for INPARQUES' infrastructure and the indigenous communities' constructions. In most cases, recent constructions still follow the typical and traditional Pemón construction style, where the home is built with wattle and daub walls (or of tree bark) and palm roofs (mostly moriche palms). In the case of the Kavanayén community, this same style is common except that they use stones, a method introduced by the missionaries years ago.
New buildings have introduced elements of foreign architecture
Despite INPARQUES' policy, buildings with foreign-influenced architecture, structures not harmonious with the environment, buildlings that have a negative visual impact or those that use non-natural materials like timber and zinc have been introduced into the recreation areas. While these buildings have merit because they provide facilities and services for visitors or housing for inhabitants, it is important to adjust certain architectural regulations so that the buildings are in harmony with the landscape and so that they preserve Pemón cultural values.
The biggest assault against the landscape was the construction of the electrical lines (200 KW) to Brazil, which pass through the Great Savannah from north to south and affect sectors located in the areas closest to the park's borders, especially in the area bordering the Chain of Eastern Tepuyes Natural Monument. These lines also affect other nearby areas under special administrative regime, such as the Imataca Forestry Reserve to the north and the Protected Zone of Southern Bolívar State towards the south. The environmental community as well as the indigenous people protested-the indigenous people felt that their ancestral and traditional lands had been violated by the project. However, the protests were not enough, and the electrical lines were built. Not only do the lines damage the landscape view, another argument against the lines is that they will favor legal and/ or illegal gold mining south of the national park, especially along the Icabarú River and north of Santa Elena de Uairén, along the Kukenán River. Environmentalists believe the new electrical lines could provide electricity to many towns or even to mining settlements, which would help these settlements become permanent.
The Great Savannah's landscape is affected by electrical lines
Insufficient staff and lack of management infrastructure
As was mentioned previously, the Eastern Sector of Canaima has two technicians (a sector director and an assistant) and five park guards, who are responsible for carrying out many functions to administer and manage an area of 1,086,250 hectares. The park guards are distributed such that they can patrol and control the most visited sites, like Paraitepui de Roraima, Jaspe Creek (has two park guards), Iboribó and Pacheco Creek. Actually, the Pacheco Creek Park Guard Station is not functioning because the Kumarakapai community (which is located a few kilometers away from the Pacheco Station) claims that the property is theirs and that they will destroy the building if it is not transferred to them. As a result, the park guards stationed there were transferred to the offices at San Ignacio de Yuruaní.
The Aponguao Administrative Center in Luepa, as well as the offices located in San Ignacio de Yuruaní are in good conditions, but in the case of Jaspe Creek, the visitor's center was destroyed by rain. The park guard stations are smaller buildings, and in the case of the one located at Paraitepui de Roraima, it may need to be enlarged. The Iboribó recreation area has staff but no infrastructure and the building that was located at the entrance of Kumarakapai (within this community) was burned by community members and is no longer in operation.
Future threats
Hydroelectric developments
There are proposals for new dam construction along the Caroní River that together would have the potential to produce 6,100 MW. Identified possible sites include Tayucay, Aripichí and Eutobarima (CVG-Edelca 2004a), which are within the western and central borders of Canaima National Park. These new hydroelectircal plants should be stopped because their impact on the environment will be great: they will cause loss of vegetative cover due to the creation of reservoirs, and habitat loss forcing fauna to search for new territories, among other impacts. Therefore, measures to prevent their construction or to mitigate their effects must be sought, as was done when the Guri and Caruachi dams were built in the lower Caroní and fauna were rescued and reintroduced to different areas and then monitored.
Management conflicts with indigenous communities
With the approval of the new Bolivariana Republic's Constitution (Constitución de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela) (República Bolivariana de Venezuela 1999) collective property rights were granted in territories where indigenous communities have traditionally resided. This started a process of land demarcation, and it is actually occurring in Canaima National Park with the Pemón. The communities perceive this demarcation as a problem that requires an immediate solution, but they also recognize that the property could have later consequences when it comes to the protected area's management. The main problem is related to indigenous rights to information and the right to be consulted before any governmental resource use project on their lands begins. This could create land tenancy and management conflicts because any type of INPARQUES project would first need the communities' approval, or for example, the communities could demand to receive economic benefits from any use or activity.
The communities are asking to receive the income from entrance fees (if they are reestablished someday) and they want full rights to administer those funds. In other cases, there have been disputes over the property rights of one of the buildings located at the Pacheco Creek; both INPARQUES and the Kumarakapai community claim it to be their own.
The INPARQUES building that the Kumarakapai claims property right to
This demonstrates that the indigenous communities not only want to participate more in the park's administration or co-management, but that they also want vindication, because these lands are traditionally theirs and they want the right to decide their destiny. Nonetheless, the Constitución de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela also gives special importance to the protection of the national parks.
