EcoLogic News, Fall 1997
10/20/97
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Headline: EcoLogic News, Fall 1997
Source: EcoLogic News
PO Box 383405; Cambridge, MA 02238-3405; United States
EMAIL: enews@ecologic.org fax: (617) 441-6307
tel: (617) 441-6300
Date: 10/20/97
THE ECOLOGIC DEVELOPMENT FUND is a nonprofit organization dedicated
to reducing destruction of significant tropical ecosystems by
advancing economic development and self-determination among local
communities in threatened habitats. These goals are accomplished
through direct financial and technical support to Latin American
organizations that promote community based development and resource
management projects in areas where the fate of local people depends
on the health of endangered habitats.
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I N T H I S I S S U E :
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(1) FROM THE PROGRAM DIRECTOR: COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION:
OVERCOMING POVERTY AND BUILDING A CIVIL SOCIETY
(2) PUNTA GORDA, TOLEDO DISTRICT AND THE TOLEDO MAYA
CULTURAL COUNCIL (TMCC)
(3) SAN JOSE PETEN AND THE BIO ITZA COMMITTEE
(4) SIERRA DE LOS CUCHUMATANES AND THE MAYAN FORESTRY
ACTION PLAN (PAF-MAYA)
(5) COMMUNITY ORGANIZING PROVES CENTRAL TO MANAGING A NATIONAL PARK
(6) CREDITS
(7) How to Subscribe and Unsubscribe to EcoLogic News
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(1) From the Program Director
COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION: OVERCOMING
POVERTY AND BUILDING A CIVIL SOCIETY
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"Do you live well?" asked Arnoldo Garcia, a PAF-Maya representative,
at a recent community planning session sponsored by EcoLogic in San
Mateo Ixtatan. A Chuj village leader replied, "Yes, we live well."
Arnoldo, eager to understand how the local people view their current
situation, continued, "Do you grow enough food to feed your families?"
"No, we are unable to feed our families properly," they responded.
"Do you have adequate clothing, shelter, education, and health care?"
Village representatives replied without hesitation, "No."
"Your forests are rapidly disappearing. Is this a problem?" wondered
Arnoldo. "Of course it is a problem. We realize that our children
may not have enough land or trees, but we do not know how to stop
deforestation. We need alternatives to cutting," responded other
Chuj representatives.
This dialogue illustrates what PAF-Maya and EcoLogic's other
partner organizations often experience when implementing conservation
and development projects. It is the communities themselves who
must decide what it is they need most--their involvement in every
phase of a project is essential to its success. The first step in
all EcoLogic projects is a collaborative analysis in which the
people we seek to serve are full and active participants. Community
participation is vital to prioritizing needs and finding lasting
solutions to the poverty and environmental degradation that local
people face.
The Chuj of San Mateo Ixtatan, whose most pressing problems include
an illiteracy rate of eighty percent and widespread malnutrition,
need training in how to grow enough food for the entire year while
tilling the land without destroying it, and generating some extra
income.
In Punta de Manabique, where education for youth is the community's
single greatest concern, EcoLogic had worked with FUNDARY to build
and staff four elementary schools. San Jose's Bio Itza Committee is
a grassroots community group whose projects, including a for-profit
carpentry school and ethnopharmacy, are planned and supplemented
by the Itza themselves.
In Honduras, EcoLogic is working with PROLANSATE to build an
alliance between the villages living in and around Jeannette Kawas
National Park. PROLANSATE, with EcoLogic's support, has promised
to work with villages to address their priority concern of increasing
agricultural productivity while reinforcing protection of species in
the park.
On a recent trip to Guatemala, Michael Watson, Director of the
Richard King Mellon Foundation, remarked, "EcoLogic is unique
in that it is giving a hand up rather than a handout." EcoLogic,
unlike many organizations, works with communities, not for
communities, to help them meet their immediate needs and find ways
to ensure a more environmentally and economically promising future.
You may have noticed the shorter length of this newsletter. A
number of EcoLogic supporters have asked for more frequent updates
on our work. We hope to send out our newly-formatted newsletter
more often.
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(2) PUNTA GORDA, TOLEDO DISTRICT AND THE TOLEDO MAYA
CULTURAL COUNCIL (TMCC)
Asian Logging, Mayan Rights, and the Columbia River
Forest Reserve
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This past winter in Punta Gorda, Toledo District, Belize, EcoLogic
sponsored a workshop hosted by the Toledo Mayan Cultural Council
(TMCC). The largest Mayan organizations of Belize -- the Kekchi
Council, the Alcaldes Association, the Cacao Growers Association,
and the Chairladies Fajina -- came together with leaders of the
villages surrounding the Columbia River Forest Reserve to discuss
government-sanctioned logging of the reserve. The traditional
homeland of Belize's Maya, forests in southern Belize are being
destroyed by Malaysian timber companies.
The two-day workshop was successful in introducing concepts of
co-management to the Maya. The fifty participants elected a working
group to develop a plan establishing co-management of this forest
reserve -- the most biodiverse region of Belize. Overall, the Maya
seek to ensure the protection of the forests and endangered species
while creating economic benefits for the local people from forest use.
In addition to EcoLogic, the Belize Audubon Society contributed its
expertise and experience to the workshop. Belize Audubon is
particularly interested in finding ways to be more supportive of the
Mayan people in their struggle to protect their large expanses of
pristine forest.
After responding to EcoLogic's Internet recruitment campaign, Alex
Greene, a doctoral student in anthropology at the University of
California, Davis, joined TMCC in July 1997. He is assisting the
newly formed Mayan working group in developing a co-management plan
as a proactive approach to protecting the Maya's threatened homelands.
For more information, please contact: Julian Cho; Toledo Maya
Cultural Council (TMCC); c/o Toledo Community College; Punta Gorda,
Toledo District; Belize, or Shaun Paul; EcoLogic Development Fund;
PO Box 383405; Cambridge, MA 02238; .
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(3) SAN JOSE PETEN AND THE BIO ITZA COMMITTEE
Carpentry and Conservation -- Jobs and Justice
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After a year of developing a participatory business plan with the
Bio Itza Committee, EcoLogic is working to establish a carpentry
school that will contribute to the Committee's goal of protecting
its municipal forests while creating employment for the Itza people.
Last year, EcoLogic contracted with Sebastian Charchalac to help the
Itza develop a business plan and market study to define clearly how
the school would operate and ultimately sustain itself from the sale
of products made by students.
Since December 1996, the Bio Itza Committee has been in conflict
with the Municipality of San Jose over how the Itza's forest reserve
should be managed. While the problem has yet to be resolved,
EcoLogic's efforts have helped to lower tensions on both sides.
Members of the Committee and EcoLogic have met with the President
of the Congressional Commission on the Environment, Aura Otzoy
Colaj, and other indigenous leaders in the Guatemalan Congress.
We are in the process of bringing together an official commission
to resolve the current conflict. Meanwhile, EcoLogic has provided
desperately-needed financial support for the Itza forest guards to
patrol the reserve while the Committee plans to secure future sources
of funding.
If you would like to contribute to the Bio Itza Committee's legal
fund or receive more information, please contact: Reginaldo Chayax;
Comite Bio Itza; San Jose, Peten, Guatemala; , or
Shaun Paul; EcoLogic Development Fund; PO Box 383405; Cambridge,
MA 02238; .
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(4) SIERRA DE LOS CUCHUMATANES AND THE MAYAN
FORESTRY ACTION PLAN (PAF-MAYA)
Conservation From the Ground Up
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The second-year anniversary of EcoLogic's partnership with the Mayan
Forestry Action Plan (PAF-Maya) was marked by a participatory planning
workshop with village leaders in San Mateo Ixtatan. This provided
an opportunity to examine the relationship between Chuj traditions
and use of natural resources. Villagers working with PAF-Maya are
particularly concerned with improving agriculture and saving their
rapidly disappearing forest. In planning workshops convened by
EcoLogic with PAF-Maya and community leaders, EcoLogic helped
formulate the following analysis to guide efforts in addressing
community priorities while strengthening conservation:
Characterization of Forests in San Mateo Ixtatan
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Pressure on forest Problem faced by Planned solution
communities
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Advance of agricul- Low agricultural Soil management
tural frontier productivity largely and conservation
as a consequence of Agroforestry
soil erosion production systems
Overexploitation of Lack of income- Diversification
forest resources earning opportunities of agriculture
for income Marketing of
agroforestry
products
Harvesting of fuel Increasingly Reforestation of
wood difficult access "energy forests"
to fuel wood
Overcutting of trees Loss of forest Reforest species
for construction for construction
materials materials
Inefficient extraction Loss of forest Training in tree
of torch-pine for fuel selection for the
extraction of
products for fuel
Sale of fuel wood Individual abuse of Strengthen
by individuals forest resources communities'
in violation of traditional laws
traditional Chuj forestry management
laws
For more information, please contact: Arnoldo Garcia; Plan de
Accion Forestal Maya (PAF-Maya); 38 Avenida "A" 0-63; Zona 7;
Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala; .
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(5) COMMUNITY ORGANIZING PROVES CENTRAL
TO MANAGING A NATIONAL PARK
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In March 1997, EcoLogic formally launched a new initiative with
the Fundacisn para la Proteccisn de Lancetilla, Punta Sal y
Texiguat (PROLANSATE) to strengthen the alliance between
managers of Jeannette Kawas National Park and a regional federation
of villages. PROLANSATE has played a vital role in helping the
people in the thirty-six villages that live in and around the park
come together to meet the communities' most urgent needs.
Seventeen representatives from ten communities met to formalize
a partnership with PROLANSATE and EcoLogic. After a lively
discussion, everyone agreed on an agenda shaped by the communities'
and PROLANSATE's shared desire to strengthen community organizations
within the villages:
* Reduce the destructive use of natural resources by promoting
reforestation
* Introduce new agriculture techniques to reduce erosion and
improve productivity
* Raise environmental awareness among park neighbors so that
they learn to respect park rules
* Decontaminate polluted water sources
* Work together to find solutions to other basic needs such
as potable water and latrines
For more information, please contact: Rafael Sambula Morales;
Fundacisn para la Proteccisn de Lancetilla, Punta Sal y Texiguat
(PROLANSATE); Barrio El Centro; Calle del Comercio; P.O. Box 32;
Tela, Atlantida, Honduras; .
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(6) CREDITS
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STAFF: Shaun Paul, Program Director, Editor in Chief; Louise M.
Wills, Ph.D., Publications and Internships Coordinator, Managing
Editor; Amelia Brown, Rafael Burgos-Mirabal, Emily Creighton, Elena
Gosalvez-Blanco, Pam Hrones, Ed Jaros, Rae Kozar, Letzen Maldonado,
Carla Mazzio, Arturo Munoz, Eric Niiler, Ringae Nuek, Amy Parness,
Joel Serface, Saundra Shohen, Nina Tobio, Robin Treasure, Gary
Trujillo, Ivan Velasco.
ADVISORY COMMITTEE: MANUELA ALVARADO, Guatemalan Congressional
Commission on Women; JORGE CABRERA, Central American Commission on
the Environment and Devlopment (CCAD); NILO CAYUQUEO Director, Abya
Yala Fund; NICOLAS MARIANO COX CHAVAJAY, Director Emeritus of the
Guatemalan Council of Mayan Organizations; JAMES CROWFOOT, Ph.D.,
President Emeritus, Antioch University; THOMAS FRICKE, President, Eco
Tech, Inc.; NEVA GOODWIN, Ph.D., Co-Director, Global Development &
Environment Institute, Tufts University; FLORENCE LADD, Ph.D., School
of International Training; ENRIQUE LEFF, Director of Environmental
Training in Latin America, United Nations Environment Program; IVETTE
PERFECTO, Ph.D., Professor, University of Michigan, School of Natural
Resources.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS: MARK BOOKMAN, JD, KATRINA BRANDON, Ph.D.,
W. RUSSELL GRACE BYERS JR., DAVID CROCKER, JUAN CARLOS GODOY,
SHAUN PAUL
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