In the lush jungle of northern Guatemala, in the largest protected area in Central America, 30 leaders from the Colombian Amazon are exchanging strategies with local Mayan farmers on how to make a living from this dense forest without destroying it.
Under the tall, leafy mahogany and cedar trees of the Maya Biosphere Reserve, the group of visitors discusses ways to ensure the rainforest remains healthy, while also studying the reserve model that Guatemala has been developing since 1994.
Guatemala’s large-scale sustainability project aims to achieve a balance where communities reforest in a controlled manner, cut down trees for wood, grow grains and vegetables, collect ornamental plants, and even develop low-impact tourism.
“This will ensure that our communities receive the economic resources that are also invested here in conservation,” Sergio Balan, regional director of the National Council of Protected Areas (CONAP), told AFP in the village of Melchor de Mencos, near the border with Belize.
The Maya Biosphere Reserve covers 2.1 million hectares (5.2 million acres) and borders Mexico and Belize.
Every year, flora and fauna are threatened by fires, deforestation for agriculture and livestock farming, and even drug trafficking.
The area is home to hundreds of archaeological sites, including the ancient Mayan city of Tikal, one of Guatemala’s top tourist attractions and home to visitors to the Colombian Amazon Forest Development and Biodiversity Centers.
Also within the reserve and near Tikal is the pre-Hispanic park of Uaxactun, where both groups participated in a Mayan ceremony involving a fire stoked with candles and tree resin.
The Colombian leaders, who were on a week-long visit, highlighted the achievements made in reducing deforestation in the Colombian Amazon by 61 percent between 2021 and 2023, according to data from the Colombian Ministry of the Environment.
– From farmer to farmer –
There are currently 16 active concessions that help preserve nearly 619,000 hectares of forest, CONAP says. Controlled logging permits, meanwhile, allow private companies to operate for periods of 25 or 30 years.
Concessions and reserves “not only provide employment, but also training for different professions,” says Erwin Maas, a Guatemalan tourist guide who is also familiar with forestry.
CONAP estimates that the concessions, a type of activity subsidy, will create approximately 150,000 direct and indirect jobs in the reserve.
Along one section of the trail, visitors will find a row of cut logs stacked to be taken to the sawmill. The wood comes from trees that have been selected to be cut in a controlled process that allows the forest to regenerate.
Nearby, the sound of birds and monkeys fluttering through the branches mingles with the chatter of the group.
“One of the best ideas we brought with us is the organizational form they (in Guatemala) have adopted to last longer,” said Aristides Oime, president of a Colombian agricultural group, Asojuntas de Cartagena del Chaira.
“From farmer to farmer, we see how we can really improve,” he said. “We want to show how we really believe that deforestation is not the way, the real way is conservation.”
Coordinator of the Colombia-based NGO Heart of the Amazon, Luz Rodriguez, believes that while Guatemalan communities are different, they have learned lessons from how other people manage land sustainably.
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