_____The goals of my evolving program are to demonstrate the critical relevance of basic research to advance conservation and development around the world today. Pioneering immigrants are moving into the tropics in record numbers; the population of the Petén of Guatemala has increased 10-fold, to more than 500,000, in the last 25 years. Unfamiliar with the region’s resources and promoted by development strategies suited to temperate zones, their agricultural practices are bankrupting the assets that gave rise to the ancient Maya civilization.

_____Testimony to the value of the Maya support system is to be found among the contemporary farmers born in the Maya forest and in the ancient settlement patterns of their ancestors. The bank of inherited knowledge is vanishing just as the El Pilar model seeks to gather in the wisdom of Maya forest and culture to applying agricultural lessons the Maya learned more than 2,000 years ago. By recovering this fleeting knowledge, the El Pilar Program will demonstrate that creative conservation can pay practical and immediate dividends. And, importantly, this can be accomplished while tapping the wave of eco-tourism to improve village lives.

_____The results of my archeological research are germane to this quest. Yet as the steady advance of the agricultural frontier devastates the protective forest and the increased looting of ancient Maya monuments to serve the illegal antiquities market threatens Maya prehistory, there is an urgent need to break the cycle with something that is completely different. Lessons learned over the past century of archaeological endeavors demonstrate that the practice of exposing architecture puts the fragile monuments at risk. The protective mantle of earth and forest canopy moderate temperatures and are natural preservatives. Once denuded, the ancient and porous limestone facades—just as the regenerative qualities of the fertile soils—are at the mercy of the sun’s destructive heat, humidity’s inevitable acid penetrations, and gravity’s pernicious force. In the face of these bare facts, the temples are degrading to powder as the delicate artistry of the architecture transforms to dust.

_____At El Pilar, we are designing an original and convincing view of the monuments, one that opens the forest landscape to frame the spectacular scenes the Maya abandoned a millennium ago. We can never actually know what the monuments looked like in Maya times. So, we need to break away from standard presentations of the Maya and bring a more authentic view of their unique qualities to the fore. The romantic view of archaeology is exploration and discovery, so why not create that experience? Every visitor can explore El Pilar for the first time and experience something that challenges the imagination.

_____The conservation of the forest was essential to the evolution of Maya civilization and today it is critical to the ecological balance of the environment. The forest canopy protects the ancient monuments as it provides a vital green mantle for our world’s future. Taking advantage of this, the El Pilar Program’s aim is to develop an integrated model of culture and nature—past and present. The El Pilar model will conserve environmental diversity and preserve the irreplaceable cultural heritage of both the ancient and contemporary populations in the region.