Maya Win Forest Protection Skirmish
4/23/97
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Headline: Maya Win Forest Protection Skirmish
Source: The Environment News Service
Date: 4/23/97
Copyright c 1997 ENS, Inc.
SAN JOSE, Peten, Guatamala, Apr. 23, 1997 (ENS) - A Mayan Indian group
struggling to protect a tiny area of the two million acre Mayan Biosphere
Reserve has just won a critical victory. The Committee of the Biosfera
Itza Reserve has now won the right to status as an association - the Bio
Itza Association.
This new status has already been valuable in their fight against the mayor
of San Jose who has been using intimidation to facilitate illegal logging
of the Maya Itza's traditional lands. The mayor, Julian Tesucun y Tesucun,
recently announced under municipal decree the disbanding of the Committee
of the Biosfera Itaz.
The Maya Itza's new status, granted by the national government, is similar
to that of a non-profit corporation in the United States. Now, as the Bio
Itza Association, the Maya Itza are able to put forward a legal demand in
court against authorities. They have greater autonomy locally politically
and greater freedom to express themselves.
In 1991, the Itza of San Jose, Peten banded together as a committee to
halt illegal logging in their municipal forests. Since that time this
community organization has effectively protected a 6 square kilometer
(1,483 acre) municipal forest reserve and promoted activities for
environmental conservation, cultural revitalization, and community
development.
This tiny forest forms a critical buffer zone to a much larger protected
area, a forest reserve adjacent to Tikal National Park. All these forests
are part of the Mayan Biosphere Reserve.
As part of his move to oust the Maya Itza from control of their forest,
the mayor appointed immigrants to serve on a new committee created in
mid-November 1996. These immigrants have been very clear in expressing
their desire to cut down the forest for agricultural plots.
The mayor asked the logging company, Barren Commercial, to improve roads
in his municipality. In exchange, the company is demanding logs for
payment.
The Biosfera Itza Reserve is one of the few areas of the municipal
indigenous lands that is still forested. The value of the wood amounts to
an estimated two million dollars per acre.
The mayor instructed police to forcibly remove the Maya patrol guards from
the forest. He never included the Comite Bio Itza in a meeting to defend
itself against the mayor's accusation that the Comite Bio Itza acted
irresponsibly. The Maya allege that the mayor attempted to confiscate all
material donations received by the committee, which include computers, a
vehicle and a community center. And in violation of new Guatemalan laws,
created as a result of the recent peace accords, which explicitly give the
Mayan people the right to participate in the management and protection of
their traditional lands.
Reginaldo Chayaz Huex, Presidente, Comite Bio Itza, said in a translated
statement, "We want this situation to be resolved through the appropriate
legal channels so that we can live and work in peace for the good of the
environment and future generations. We are the first indigenous
organization to worry about our natural environment in the northern
forested region of the Peten, which has suffered deforestation and
destruction due to the increasing number of immigrants from other parts of
the country."
The Bio Itza Committee appealed for letters to be sent by international
organizations to local and national authorities. This has helped to
prevent the mayor from forcibly removing the Bio Itza Committee's forest
guards from the reserve, according to Shaun Paul, executive director of
the Cambridge, Massachusetts based EcoLogic Development Fund.
EcoLogic helped the Maya Itza to hire a legal assistance that won their
new status as an association and helped to fight the mayor's moves to take
over the forest for logging.
The lawyers have been successful on technical grounds in getting a ruling
that the mayor cannot expropriate material goods or improvements such a
fire break. The effect of this ruling has been that the Mayor sees he may
lose the case, and has backed down.
The situation generated attention on the national level. Things became so
hostile that the two sides of the conflict were unable to come together in
reasonable discussion. The Guatamalan Congress stepped in at the request
of Aura Mariana Otzoy Colaj, an indigenous person and a congresswoman who
this year was elected to head the Commission on Natural Resources.
The Maya Itza were granted status as an association. The short term threat
has subsided. But the need to resolve the primary problem still exists.
The Maya Itza wish to acknowlede that they have received technical and/or
financial assistance from the following institutions: the University of
Michigan, Cultural Survival, IIZ-Austrian Embassy, ProPeten/CI, TNC,
CONAP, CATIE/RENAR, CCAD, EcoLogic Development Fund, and SEGEPLAN.