SUNS  4324 Monday 16 November 1998

Georgetown, Nov 12 (IPS/Bert Wilkinson) -- Until quite recently, Guyana, Brazil and other countries in South America boasted a healthy population of the Arapaima, long listed as the world's largest fresh water fish.

The fish grows to four metres and weighs up to 200 kilogrammes.

But that situation is changing as a thriving cross border trade in the fish is rapidly depleting stocks.

Concerned that they could lose the fight to save the fish to poachers in Guyana, Brazil, Suriname and French Guiana, authorities have launched an awareness programme in an effort to change attitudes toward poaching. The interiors of these countries as well as communities along rivers are targeted.

The awareness programme which was recently launched seeks to point residents to the long-term effect of overfishing not just of the Arapaima but of other marine life.

The project which is receiving assistance from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is also seeking to persuade cross border traders to return to farming and cattle rearing.

The UNDP project also funds distribution of food items to residents as well as farming implements and seeds.
      
Most of those identified as hunters are among the country's poorest. Their per capita income is just over $500.

The prolonged dry season in the last year had put many communities, which had traditionally survived by planting cassava, cashew and other crops, in a desperate situation.

In order to survive, the farmers turned to fishing, traversing the dark brown waters of the Takatu and other rivers to hunt for the fish which is sold for five dollars per kilogramme in Guyana.
"We are trying to sensitise the Guyana defence force and the police so that they can assist in preventing the species from being caught, " says Vilma Roopchand, a member of the National Bio Diversity Centre.

"The border trade is illegal and it is very embarrassing for the Guyana and Brazilian governments. They are, however, discussing it," she adds.

There are also indications that the giant river turtle is heading down the same lane as the Arapaima, while several communities in the southern region near Brazil say the Sun Parakeet has virtually
disappeared from those areas.

Dr. Graham Watkins of the Commonwealth-run Iwokrama Rainforest Conservation Centre says since the launch of the project in Guyana there are some encouraging signs.

"The Arapaima is disappearing fast from the region, but we are seeing some positive things in terms of people in the communities beginning to accept that it is illegal to trade in the Arapaima...," he says.

The Iwokrama Centre is located in the central western Guyana region. It covers an area of 360,000 hectares. The area was donated by the previous Desmond Hoyte administration at the 1989 Malaysia summit of Commonwealth Heads of government.

The idea behind it was to give world scientists a pristine rainforest region to conduct scientific research.

The Centre has a field station just on the outskirts of the western jungle from which it is carrying out studies including an inventory of flora and fauna. Recently scientists found at least 12 new reptile and animal species from random surveys, but that was the good news.

The bad news related to the Arapaima falling victim to the bow and arrow of Amerindians or from the guns of Brazilian and Guyanese poachers.

And while Watkins and his team hold out hope for a recovery for the fresh water giant, Reuben Charles, government's chief fisheries officer is not that optimistic.

"You must know that the interior is a large area to cover and it pretty much depends on your law enforcement officers. I don't know how capable they are in traversing the area to pinpoint the problem," he says.

The Arapaima is listed as endangered by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna.