Dispatches from the Field & Project Summaries
Belize Expedition: Day 7
January 14, 2011
Belize Audubon Society: Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary
Just past the Guatemala-Belize border, our Guatemalan driver pulled over. “Aqui les dejo,” he said. “Buen viaje, nos vemos!” We got out, stretched our legs, and greeted Dirk, the driver of the van waiting to take us to our first project in Belize. “Hey mon, how was da drive?” he asked in a thick Creole accent.
We sure weren’t in Guatemala anymore.
Though Belize is tiny—it’s about the size of New Hampshire, with a total population of 300,000 people—it’s maintained its identity unique to the rest of Central America. Belize is the only country in Latin America with English as its official language, though Creole the first language of most. Power lines, colonial-style houses on stilts, banana trees, and paved roads—the difference between Belize and Guatemala was immeadiate and much more shocking than I thought it’d be.
Dirk’s “road mix” of Whitney Houston and Rihanna didn’t do much to assuage the shock, nor did his Rastafarian brand of sarcasm—turns out, “omg” is not a Creole word that means welcome (…it means the same thing in Belize as it does on an American teenager’s cell phone). Dirk is the publicity director for Belize Audubon Society, a non-profit that manages nine wildlife and nature preserves in Belize. They’re working to integrate conservation in Belize with local communities in a way that makes sense—to ensure the livelihoods of both wildlife and people.
Our destination tonight was Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary, a 12,000-acre wildlife sanctuary–the first jaguar sanctuary in the world.
Guatemala Expedition: Day 7
January 11, 2011
Rainforest Alliance & Sustainable Forest Management: Uaxactún
Omar showed us a map of the Mayan Biosphere Reserve this morning. Red areas represent deforestation; white, preserved forest. The expanse of land in the west—the national forest—was pure red. Western concession lands? White.
I continue to be flabbergasted by the lack of control or compliance in the preservation national forest lands in Guatemala—which makes the success of concession model even more significant.But, concessions face continual challenges, not only from illegal activities like narco-trafficing–a huge threat to forest preservation activists–and exploitive agricultural activities, but also from the Guatemalan government. ACOFOP is a group of 22 communities organized into concessions and dedicated to sustainable forestry management in Petén. ACOFOP was created out of the necessity to unite communities as a way to gain power, and Marcedonia Cortave, the Executive Director of ACOFOP said that it’s a constant fight against the government to maintain the equilibrium of limited development in the concessions. “Many people don’t understand the concession model. They think either the land should be nationally protected, or legally developed,” he said. “The biggest challenge in the past was demonstrate that the communities were able to manage and run the forest.”
Monday, we headed north to the concession area of Uaxactún, north of Tikal National Park. While sustainable timber harvesting is an important source of income in the forest, community leaders recognize the importance of diversifying the economy. This diversification comes in the form of non-timber activities, like eco-tourism and the sale of chicle, xate, and cultivation of Maya nuts.
On the way to Uaxactún, we stopped to visit Gladys, a woman who runs a Maya nut cooperative. The cooperative is women run from start to finish, from the collection of the nuts in the forest, to processing, cultivating, toasting, grinding, and packaging the nut flour. Both ACOFOP and Rainforest Alliance helped this Mayan Nut cooperative with funding and business development, thus enabling the now self-sustaining business to employ 16 women in the community.
Another example of a non-timber business that involves women is xate cultivation. Xate is an ornamental palm used in flower arrangements, and one of the most abundant plans in the reserve. Men go into the forest to collect the shiny green fronds, bring them back to the processing plant, where women sort, bind, and pack the fronds for export. A bundle of palms these palms sells for $10-12 dollars in the U.S., and generates $500,000 annually in all the concession combined. By enabling these different business ventures to succeed, organizations like Rainforest Alliance ensure the survival of these communities that live off the forest in a sustainable and responsible way, thus ensuring the survival of the forest itself.
Guatemala Expedition: Day 6
January 11, 2011
Rainforest Alliance & Sustainable Forest Management: Carmelita Concession
The town of Carmelita is so remote that until 25 years ago, it was only accessible by plane. We took the bumpy road in, tearing through the Carmelita concession to arrive to this 70 family community—the most distant in Guatemala, the last before Mexico.
We drove up accompanied by Omar Samayoa, the Climate Change Coordinator for Rainforest Alliance. As usual, we stopped several times en route to capture some of the vistas and forest shots—or lack thereof, in the case of much of the land. Deforestation is a huge problem in Guatemala, not only because it threatens the survival of these unique ecosystems, but also because the government is unable to control its spread. Omar was getting nervous as Rob ventured further off-road, peeking through fences (illegal in the area) with his camera; he warned me that we were filming “illegal lands”—lands that legally are off-limits to any development, but that have been taken over by livestock and agriculture operations. Once these squatters clear lands and settle in, it’s hard to get them out.
While in countries like the U.S., national parks are generally respected as community land, in Guatemala, government protected land in national parks is deforested at a rate 20 times higher than land in “multiple-use” zones—where, in fact, communities extract and sell timber. The Guatemalan government simply doesn’t have the resources (or perhaps, the will) to ensure these core preservation areas remain untouched—which, like trying to fast rather than diet, simply results in a larger glut.
As an alternative to the national park model, concessions put the management of the forest into the hands of the communities living within the same forest. They are allowed to sustainably harvest wood and other non-timber products. By giving these communities the responsibility to determine how they treat their own land, groups like Rainforest Alliance puts the future of the rainforest in the hands of those whose long-term survival depends on its presence. Communities like Carmelita extract wood in a way that ensures that there will be more wood in the future. “Concessions show that you can maintain equilibrium between social, economic, and ecological aspects of the forest,” said Jose Ramon Carrera, a Central America project manager with Rainforest Alliance.
Allowing communities to integrate with the forest provides not only another means to manage the forest, but also creates livelihoods for those without access to jobs. Seventy-six of the 260 people in Carmelita work in timber, and it generates 80 percent of the community’s income. All of the timber extracted and processed in Carmelita is FSC certified sustainable, and Rainforest Alliance has worked with the community to find other ways to add value to this wood, such as on-site processing, and a new venture into carpentry.
Guatemala Expedition: Day 5
January 10, 2011
Rainforest Alliance & Sustainable Forestry Management: Petén
It was an ambitious plan—in a day, we were going to transverse the entire country of Guatemala, starting at the southwestern coast with Semilla Nueva and arriving to the northeastern jungle wilderness of Petén. We rose before sunrise, slurped down some hot fish soup for breakfast, and hit the road, brains jiggling along the dirt road to Guatemala City, ham sandwiches sustaining us along the 8 hours between Guate and Flores, the capitol of the Petén providence—the northernmost and largest providence in Guatemala.
Petén contains the largest continuous forest north of the Amazon, a wilderness area that spans Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. Green Living Project is here to talk to Rainforest Alliance, an NGO that has worked to integrate sustainable forest management with community development. Rainforest Alliances works with communities in the forest to create systems of extraction and land use policies that are sustainable. Their goal is not simply to preserve the eco-diversity of the forest, but also to enable communities to live off the forest, to generate sustainable incomes.
In 1990, the national government designated this expanse of land—2.1 million acres, or 15 percent of Guatemala—as the Mayan Biosphere Reserve. In a unique example of land-use management, terrain in the reserve is divided into three categories: national parks, multiple-use areas and “buffer zones” between private lands and the reserve. While absolutely no development is permitted within the national parks, communities in multiple-use zones are able to sustainably harvest wood and other non-timber forest products, such as xate, chicle, and Maya nuts. But, that’s just what national law—signed in 1990—says; we’re here to see how the reality of how these land-use restrictions plays out.
Guatemala Expedition: Day 4
January 9, 2011
Semilla Nueva & Sustainable Agriculture: The Coast
After an uneven night’s sleep—six of us lay like sardines under mosquito nets—and an early morning wake-up from an angry dog, we headed out to the fields to talk to Isaias about how working with Semilla Nueva has changed how he farms. In the past year, he’s tried two new technologies—green manure and conservation tillage.
Green manure is another way to reference cover crops—crops planted in the off-season when land usually lies fallow. Cover crops not only restore nitrogen, moisture, and bacteria to the soil, they protect top layers from sun and erosion. The green matter can then be tilled back into the soil, fixing even more nutrients before crops are even planted. Not only does green manure build soil health—an objective that’s hard to quantify for poor farmers—it offers an economic incentive. Crops can often be sold, like the Macuna Curt and Darren helped plant last year, and farmers’ fertilizer costs are reduced, allowing them independence from fluctuating chemical prices.
According to Curt, 60 to 70 percent of fertilizers used across the world are pure nitrogen. Rather than use fossil fuels to manufacture nitrogen—the most important nutrient for healthy crops—green manure takes the nitrogen from the air and puts it in the soil. “Green manure is the most important technology of organic agriculture,” said Curt. “You have to find a way to get nutrients for your plants, and atmospheric nitrogen is an unlimited resource.”
Conservation tillage is a simple yet powerful alternative to crop burning, the ubiquitous practice of farmers across the country. When corn, for example, is harvested, rows of stalks line the field; farmers call this residue “dirty,” and burn it, thus preparing the land for another season of planting. In conservation tillage—otherwise known as “no-till”—farmers simply cut the corn stalks down, leave them to decompose on the soil, and plant the next season’s crops directly on top of the remains. Not only does this prevent the soil disruption (and release of carbon dioxide) by tilling, it also protects the soil from variable weather.
But, Semilla Nueva is fighting a strong cultural bias that views these layered fields as dirty. With Isaias as a model, they’ve got to demonstrate that this new technology produces better soil—and more corn—to entice other farmers to try it out.
They’re using the farmer-to-farmer method, in which farmers participate in the process of testing new techniques, gaining a stake in the development process. Once promotores, like Isaias, have experience with the new technologies, they can teach community members through community conferences and the same sort of guided experimentation they initially used. Isaias said it best. “We had a lot of loss [of crops] in past years. Our parents taught us to burn the land, and maybe that’s not so good. It’s important to communicate to not just my community but others, in the municipality. I’m proud to share these new technologies with my community, with others.”
Guatemala Expedition: Day 3
January 9, 2011
Semilla Nueva & Sustainable Agriculture: The Coast
We began Friday morning in hats and fleece in the mountains of Xela, and ended the day swimming in the warm waters of the Guatemalan coast, phosphoresce glimmering in the waves. Thought it was a long and bumpy ride down from the cold, dry highlands, the change in climate seemed to happen within minutes as we dropped down to the hot, humid coast. It’s still the dry season down here, but it’s verdant: tropical huts, bright flowers, palm fronds, and row after row of green crops.
While most farmers in the highlands are sustenance farmers, cultivating only enough corn to feed their families, farmers on the coast often sell surplus crops to markets in Guatemala. Farming is a business here—the main source of income for families—and attitudes towards farming vary accordingly. Semilla Nueva sees the coast as region with the most potential; by implementing a few high-impact technologies, they have the opportunity to put food on the table for a lot of people.
We stayed with the family of Isaias Alvarado, a rural farmer in La Maquina and the first promotor Semilla Nueva worked with on the coast. Their house is full—of squawking chickens, giggling toddlers, and the constant slap-slap of tortilla dough. They’re all family, and up in each other’s lives—yelling and laughing and gossiping, and curious of this new group of gringos in their home. Darren and Curt Bowen, the Executive Director of Semilla Nueva, walked into this vibrant home as if it were their own—a testament to the strength of the relationships they’ve formed in this community.
We had arrived late and were racing against the setting sun. After we explored the fields near the family’s house, we headed a few miles to the coast to view test plots there. As dusk fell, a cracking and popping joined in the chorus of the crashing waves. A harvested field—several acres—was burning, billowing red smoke into the dusk sky. Crop burning is a huge issue in Guatemala, deeply rooted in cultural beliefs that burning the residues that remain after harvesting “clean” the land, wiping it fresh for a new season of planting. It was a spectacular sight, this sweeping fire crackling on corn stalks—the very reason Semilla Nueva is in this area, to teach farmers how these practices suck all the necessary nutrients out of the soil—literally burning it—and leave it susceptible to erosion in rain and drought.
The sun set and the crashing waves beckoned—so in we went, into the dark water and warm crashing waves, full of phosphorescent algae that shimmered on our clothes and in droplets. “We’ll probably be the only gringos swimming on this beach for the next three years,” said Darren.
Guatemala Expedition: Day 3
January 9, 2011
Semilla Nueva & Sustainable Agriculture: The Highlands
Before we could leave the highlands and head down to the coast, we needed more mountain footage, and a scenic spot to interview Darren. The morning light was holding most of the mountain in shadow, and it was looking like we’d have to settle for something on the coast. Until, on a whim, Darren swung a left on a dirt road off the highway, and we entered the lush, picturesque Zunil valley, one of the biggest vegetable producing regions in Central America. Unlike the dusty highland we had just left—where cultivation has stopped until rain returns in March—here, plot after plot of tufty green unfolded before us, sprawling from the valley below up the steep hills.
Farmers in Zunil use irrigation—and chemical fertilizers—to keep their crops growing year-round. Thought the land appeared fertile and the soil healthy, farmers are so dependent on chemical fertilizers that the soil is extremely degraded. As the soil in the valley becomes unusable, farmers move further and further up the hill, farming plots that are almost vertical.
Traditionally, farmers planted corn, bean, and squash together on the same land, a variation that allowed the soil to retain its nutrients year after year. But, the introduction of chemical fertilizers to Guatemala allowed farmers to plant a single crop on their fields, increasing yields. Mono-cropping with chemicals is also easier than poly-cropping, decreasing labor time and allowing farmers to have jobs outside of agriculture. But, chemicals leave disastrous results on the land. Chemical fertilizers deposit nitrogen on the surface of the soil, allowing farmers to grow on depleted land, and furthering the erosion of the entire soil ecosystem—the bacteria and nutrients that grow healthy crops.
For these farm communities in the highlands—poorly organized towns of sustenance farmers—simple solutions exist, like using organic compost rather than fertilizer, as Ender has been doing. But, “changing the practice of rural farmers is really about changing their mentality,” said Darren.
We hurtled down the mountain, losing almost 8,000 feet in altitude in less than 150 miles. Slowly—slowly but surely—the brakes were losing strength. Darren pumped the brakes, steered the car into a foliage-covered shoulder of the road, and we prepared to continue our journey on the bus. But, we waited, the brakes cooled, and we coasted down the mountain, just a bit slower.
Guatemala Expedition: Day 2
January 6, 2011
Semilla Nueva & Sustainable Agriculture: The Highlands
Ender began his worm compost in Xacana with four kilos of worms—roughly two thousand coquetes rojos, or red wigglers. Creating an organic compost system—a relatively simple endeavor that delivers quick results—was one of Semilla Nueva’s first projects in Xacana. Organic composting is an example of a new technology or technique that can be initiated with a small investment and sustained with little outside help. By using resources already readily available (organic trash) in the community, it saves farmers the cost of purchasing fertilizer (which would most likely be chemical)—organic compost returns nutrients to the soil, ultimately making it stronger. And, as Semilla Nueva hoped would happen, one project spawned others. Ender learned the science behind worm composting, shared it with his village, and led workshops on worm composting in Xacana, resulting in the creation of two other worm composts in nearby villages. On a larger scale, as farmers work within their own communities to help other farmers learn and implement new techniques, such as worm composting, Semilla Nueva hopes to build a self-sustaining and supportive network of informed farmers, invested in their own futures.
Guatemala Expedition: Day 2
January 6, 2011
Semilla Nueva & Sustainable Agriculture: The Highlands
Rows of corn are crammed into every cranny of the Guatemalan hillside, butting up to houses and lined up in the triangle intersections where roads split. We left Xela this morning and went up, grinding gears up to the highlands through a patchwork of homesteads and small farms. We arrived to Xacana Grande, one of the first sites where Semilla Nueva put down roots, cultivating a relationship with the community and its promotor, Ender Lopez.
Ender grows corn on about 26 cuerdas of land—roughly a hectare. The land has been in his family for 200 years; his father, Manuel, still farms alongside him. Since 2009, Semilla Nueva has been building a relationship with Ender and his family and learning about the community—its available resources and established customs—before suggesting any new technologies or implementing changes.
Half of the 13 million people in Guatemala are employed by agriculture, though most farmers in Guatemala have other jobs—Ender is a teacher, and Manuel is a security guard at a bank. Semilla Nueva saw that simple changes in the practices of these 6 million rural farmers could have a big impact, not only for the sustainability of their farms, but in quetzals earned–an important factor for these sustenance farmers, harvesting just enough food for their families.
Sustainable agro-ecology, such as crop rotation and the use of cover crops during the off-season (which protect against wind, rain, and add nitrogen back to the soil) increases the quality of the soil and thus increases crop yield—money in the bank (or stomach) for many Guatemalans. Chemical fertilizers are relied upon year after year. They not only strip the land of its nutrients, but are almost prohibitively expensive: between 2006 and 2007, the cost of fertilizer in Guatemala rose 300 percent. The effects of climate change are tangible to farmers–increases in extreme weathers, like droughts and floods–and many of these sustainable practices are designed not only to prevent future climate change, but to protect and save the land for future generations.
Guatemala Expedition: Day 1
January 5, 2011
Sweet tamales never tasted so good. We just arrived in Xela, Guatemala after converging in Guatemala City—from Los Angeles, Denver, Memphis, and New York. As dusk was falling, we rose up out of the smog and congestion of Guatemala City, and began the long and winding ride to Xela along the Pan-American—a curvy beast of a road, confined to one lane in many areas from where mudslides collapsed the hillside during summer rains. It was dark, cold, windy—oh yes, and Rob and Drew were in the back of the pickup cab, huddled among the luggage and a few blankets. But, they toughed it out (“I just kept talking,” Rob said), and warmed up with some tea, tamales dulces, y cerveza upon arrival.
Matt, Chris and I were lucky enough to get a spot inside of the cab, with Darren of Semilla Nueva, a small non-profit helping small farmers all around Guatemala learn and implement sustainable agriculture technologies. They finished their first season of crops last year, working with seven promotores, or community leaders, to introduce sustainable agriculture practices to their farms and to the community. Tomorrow, we’re off to meet a family in the highlands, to check out how they’ve changed their farming practices and are integrating environmentalism into their lives.