Gender on the Frontlines: Roles, Risks and Urgency in a Changing Environment opened on Monday morning with calls for greater recognition of community protectors including women and children, all of whom depend on clean communities and greater protection of the environment. The conference, which is being held by the University of Guyana, Turkeyen Campus featured an opening address by Environmental Engineer and educator Professor Maya Trotz. Trotz pointed out that as the conference seeks to highlight environmental health, it has also placed a spotlight on risks – “It is about how risk is carried unevenly. And it is about who notices danger first,” Trotz noted, adding that “the people most often described as vulnerable are not only vulnerable. They are early warners, constant monitors, and innovators, caregivers, grandmothers, market women, cleaners, nurses, teachers, fishers, farmers, tour guides, Indigenous communities, housewives, and women holding households together often detect environmental change before institutions do — and in Guyana, before the country does,” Trotz said.

Understanding the risks remain an important task for Guyanese who are guardians within their communities, “as warners”, Trotz posited, many Guyanese know already know these risks,  “they know when water smells different, when boiling or filters are needed because what comes through the tap is not potable, when black tanks and buckets are needed because water comes at a trickle or does not come at all, when children’s skin changes, when fish move, when a reef looks sick, when flooding follows a new pattern. They may not call it data, science, or infrastructure, but their care is an early warning infrastructure,” Trotz underscored.

Additionally, massive changes in Guyana supported by its oil wealth are many. Trotz listed changes to infrastructure, migration, coastal risk, land pressures, mining, and waste. “We need a framework that asks different questions.” she demanded, “Not only: what are we building or earning, but who is exposed, displaced, and paying the cost? Not only: what do models predict, but who has been warning, innovating, and teaching institutions to learn?”.