Rural regional planning in the Venezuelan Guayana: an approach to inform decision-making in peripheral areas

The Venezuelan economic crisis, combined with the creation of the Orinoco Mining Arc (OMA), has pushed thousands of people to work in wildcat mines in the Venezuelan Guayana. Even though attempts have been made to control illegal mining in the past, the absence of planning and lack of concrete economic alternatives have made these efforts unsuccessful. Spatial planning could play an important role in developing a rural regional strategy aimed at making other livelihood options available. This is a challenging endeavour, however, because the Venezuelan Guayana is the largest and least populated region of the country, with most of its surface covered by fragile forests rich in ecological and cultural diversity. Moreover, data to inform decision-making are unavailable or severely limited. This paper presents an approach that attempts to overcome those obstacles and seeks to identify which are the peripheral remote areas where resource extraction and its negative externalities are most present, conflicting with the preservation of the forest, its biodiversity and the livelihoods of Indigenous populations. The conclusions presented here might assist spatial planners and policymakers who seek to explore territorial approaches for rural development and inform decision-making in peripheral regions where data are scarce.