Residents of the Indigenous Pemón village of Wuruupo use controlled burns to clear land for a new “conuco,” or small subsistence farm, near the village, which is in Venezuela’s southeastern Gran Sabana region. Fire is an important tool for the Pemón, who use it not only to clear the land and prepare the soil for agriculture but also to communicate over long distances. The Pemón live scattered across the Gran Sabana, a region the size of Belgium that is designated as a national park, in dozens of small villages, some of them very remote. Unemployment and a chronic lack of even basic services plague the Indigenous communities of the Gran Sabana, pushing some residents to leave their lands or resort to illegal wildcat mining, which has devastating health and environmental effects. The villagers in Wuruupo have taken the explicit decision not to allow mining on their lands and rely, instead, on their “conucos,” where they grow yucca and other crops that are the staples of their diets. UNHCR works with many of these vulnerable Indigenous communities, such as Wuruupo, to help prevent displacement. The UN Refugee Agency has provided staple foods, as well as basic items, such as solar-powered lamps, that improve residents’ quality of life and allow people to remain on their ancestral lands. ; UNHCR works within Venezuela to provide support to refugees inside the South American country, as well as with vulnerable Venezuelan populations at risk of displacement, and also with those returning to the country from abroad.