Vulnerability and participation in a small community in the guyanese amazon forest.

The concepts of active citizenship and community driven development have progressively become central within thepolitical debate and development aid practices, becoming key tools for delivering development assistance. In isolated,economically fragile, socially weak, environmentally and / or politically vulnerable contexts, collective action appearsoften to be the only strategy to be used to bring forces together, become more visible, cope with the crisis, intercept newopportunities and, last but not least, to respond to the logics of funding. Nonetheless, there are still strong operational,structural and cultural limitations in the capacity of collective action to promote territorial development of marginalcontexts. The paper investigates and discusses these limitations through the analysis of an experience of communitydevelopment in the North Rupununi (Guyanese Amazon forest) where fragility and the potential of participatory andyet highly vulnerable territories emerge.

Keywords: participation, development, vulnerability, Guyana, North Rupununi, Aranaputa.