MESA REDONDA 1997
Building a Future from the Past
by Anabel Ford
Introduction
Community development for El Pilar is complex, involving local desires for a better life and global concerns for environmental quality. In recognizing potentially competing objectives, the El Pilar Program unites these goals by linking the cultural and natural resource conservation of El Pilar to the regional development agenda. Amigos de El Pilar, a community-based organization composed of local villagers and situated in Bullet Tree Falls, has formed around the Program as partner and beneficiary of development plans. Such local community organizations represent the ultimate stewards of El Pilar.
Cultural Continuity in the Maya Forest
During the past two decades there have been dramatic environmental changes as a result of expanding agricultural pioneers. These changes are related to population growth, the consequence of which has been environmental degradation. The extensive agricultural techniques of these pioneers focus on monocropping maize without consideration of the long-term implications of this system. At the height of the Maya civilization, important cities, like El Pilar, were surrounded with elaborate, intensive, polycultivation fields and gardens. This strategy emulated the natural forest structure and included multi-layered forest-gardens of sun and shade enveloping housing compounds dispersed within hills and ridges of the region. These ancient settlement and household patterns are diametrically opposed to contemporary habits, yet formed the cornerstone of ancient Maya civilization and culture.
The ancient Maya used the same lands that are preferred for extensive farming today. Their system, however, was intensive with shortened fallow periods, increased field labor, eclectic combination of crops, and managed regeneration that evolved as an alliance with the forest. There was a clear association between primary agricultural lands and the regional Maya hierarchy: the greater the proportion of good lands, the denser the settlement and the larger the cities. These past patterns provide the outline for viable living in the Maya forest. With archaeological investigation of ancient Maya residences and their reconstruction, using the local construction techniques, a dynamic picture of the Maya household will be portrayed.
Archaeological exposure of the residential component of El Pilar will begin to evoke the reality of Maya centers as forest-garden cities for the local community as well as for touring visitors. To accomplish these goals, we must understand the diversity of house construction, maintenance activities inside and outside houses, and forest-gardening strategies around houses.
Interpretations of the archaeological data will depend on villagers who participate in recreating house structures using renewable forest resources, assembling the household items with local forest materials, and designing the household activities interpreted from the archaeological data. This collaborative approach fully recognizes the values of local wisdom by incorporating it into the planning stages and featuring it at the example Maya house. Through these activities and their maintenance, the Program will help shape the cultural ties of archaeological research to contemporary village life.
A BROMILIAD IN THE FOREST GUARDEN AT TZUNU'UN
Today, village housing ranges from pole-and-thatch and waddle-and-daub to clapboard and concrete block. Inside kitchens, one can find everything from stone hearths to gas ranges. Outside, storage structures hold dried corn ready for grinding and kitchen middens contain remnants of previous meals. These patterns of living have their origins in the Maya forest. While there are notable differences in contemporary household life, many cultural traits persist and are a source of continuity that villagers bring to the quest of reconstructing ancient Maya life. Their participation in the interpretations of household life at El Pilar will directly link them to the reserve.
FOREST GARDENER DON HERIBERTO COCOM
The Polycultural Maya Forest-Garden
This strategy for polycultivation is based mimicking the natural environmental structure and diversity to promote sustainability. The Maya forest-garden design is based on the ancient Maya template. The design strategy will develop a mix of economic plants that depend on available labor inputs, rather than scarce capital, to provide a diverse subsistence base as well as potential cash crops. Included in this scheme will be nitrogen fixing legumes, such as acacia and beans, and phosphate generating palms, such as corozo or cohune, that together regenerate soils depleted by grains, notably maize.
Beginning a small-scale household plan, the strategy will focus on basic investments to bring the lands of El Pilar into a new land management regime. Based on research and the community knowledge of cultigens and with the resources and support of the Department of Agriculture and Central Farm Agricultural College, with the experience of the Guatemala NGO Centro Maya, the roster of resources will evolve to be worked into a dynamic planting design. This design, at once, will provide an ecotourist attraction and an alternative subsistence strategy for bringing the community into the new century.
CONSEJEROS ADVISE ON SITE AT EL PILAR
Designing a Development Plan for
Villages Adjacent to El Pilar
The Problem
by Bridget Cullerton
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT NEEDS
To improve the quality of life of the people of the riverside villages
and surrounding communities by encouraging self sufficiency.
Issues to Address:
The Solution
by Laura Hernández Pinto and Juan Carlos Fernández Alcántara
English version by Carol Miller and Anabel Ford
STRATEGY
The relationship between development, conservation, and tourism has
great potential as a sustainable alternative for villagers of the Maya
forest. Today, villagers are distributed along the road to El Pilar within
the greater Belize River Valley. Access to the ancient Maya center of El
Pilar is through the village, presenting the potential for economic benefits
through the growth of tourism as well as in the promotion of the cultural
and natural resources of the area.
BRASS/EL PILAR BOOTH AT THE BULLET TREE FALLS AGRICULTURAL FAIR 1995
DEVELOPMENT
An overall design for village development can be accomplished by defining the village and surrounding landscape in the context of a master design plan. The plan will incorporate input from the multidisciplinary group of investigators in archaeology, ecology, agriculture and conservation at El Pilar. In this manner the landscape architectural design can be a critical link that synthesizes and reflects both the interests of the community and the concerns of the investigators. The results will outline a development strategy for the local community to help direct their actions towards the potential benefits. Such a design will be coordinated with community organizations.
The evolution of a landscape design for the village will interactively
determine the optimal locations for the thematic developments. Themes will
focus on the regional and local issues from the community perspective and
will center around a community cultural center for traditional crafts market,
cultural presentations and educational workshops:
Crafts Market
Cultural Presentations
Educational Workshops
AXCANAN - THE GUARDIAN OF THE FOREST
THE PROJECT
The cultural center with a crafts market, cultural presentations, and educational events will creatively integrate the environments of the area. Given the ecotourism links to the Maya center of El Pilar, this cultural center must articulate clearly with the ultimate destination of El Pilar Archaeological Reserve.
A VIEW OF THE RIVERSIDE VILLAGE OF BULLET TREE FALLS
The design of this attraction must invite the visitor to the village as a feature of the tour along the way to El Pilar. With this first stop, the visitor will participate in the development of the community and the community will be encouraged to develop new attractions.
DISCUSSION AT THE MESA REDONDA: HERIBERTO COCOM, MIGUEL
ORREGO, MARCOS GARCIA, BRIDGET CULLERTON AND CAROL MILLER
Memories from the Past
for a Promising Future:
The View from the Village
English version by Heriberto Cocom and Carol Miller
The following transcripts come from the summary presentations at the
Mesa Redonda El Pilar in Mexico City. The speeches of the Amigos de El
Pilar cover the problems and, to some extent, offer direction for solutions
as seen from the point of view of a villager. Both speakers have hopes
for a better future and acknowledge the trajectory of change and its impact
on the current state of conservation in the Maya forest between Belize
and Guatemala. These summaries provide another convergent perspective between
the community development and basic research components of the program.
PRESENTATION OF MARCOS GARCIA
President ~ Amigos de El Pilar
MARCOS GARCIA
Mr. Cocom has a living place much more different than others that are in the heart of the village. Around his house he has a large place surrounded by fruit trees, right Don Cocom? The difference with respect to others is that it is a bigger place and has more plants and trees on the land.
The problem that we can observe in the center of the village is that the houses are too close to one another. Because of this, we do not find many trees. This is why Amigos de El Pilar has told us we can find a method for dealing with this problem.
Another of our problems that we are confronting is that the people of the village do not have a clear idea on what ecotourism is all about or that the people do not know what it means. What I think the problem that we have to develop so that we could promote our village and capture more income from tourism, show them the beauty of our nature, traditions.
But first of all we, the villagers, need to be trained so that the impact
of ecotourism will be positive and not negative. This is one of the alternatives
that we think should work in conjunction with Amigos de El Pilar, reaffirming
that we have a future with ecotourism. But
I still ask myself, what can we do to solve this problem?
PRESENTATION OF HERIBERTO COCOM
Consejero ~ Amigos de El Pilar
PRESENTATION OF HERIBERTO COCOM, ADVISOR ~ AMIGOS
DE EL PILAR
It has been about 100 years, Bullet Tree Falls was a small village with approximately some 50 people, including the children. I am only 27 years, pardon, I say 57 years, but according to the story of our Maya ancestors, the ones that came and built the village of Bullet Tree Falls were from the Mexican and Guatemalan zone. In a short time it converted into an English colony, controlled by the English coming here, being a zone of high bush &emdash; jungle - not exploited. Now this I want to say, that it was not yet cut down by our farmers. The reason was because the population was small. At this time they started to cut or fall the high bush, little by little, until they reached the higher mountains above Bullet Tree Falls, close to El Pilar some 7 and a half miles north. Now it only exists in low bush, like secondary bush.
It has been some 24 years, I did not have the vision to have an idea that on this time I was going to be a man that was going to present something that now we are wanting to make good. I obtained a piece of land which is approximately 15 acres. I live in the zone of this place at the banks of the river. I have approximately 1 acre of land where I live, like my companion Marcos Garcia has said, and it is already covered with fruit trees, hardwood trees and other local types of trees, and then I have an agricultural lot that is approximately 1 kilometer from where I live going up Paslow Falls road.
It has been about 25 years, like I have said. I started, like everyone else, to fall the bush. The first years I cleared the 15 acres of land. But then, an idea came to me. And I said, I am destroying my lands, I say the little animals, birds and four-legged animals, something like that, they are getting scared, running away. And I got a great sadness. So I then selected a part of the land to let it grow as jungle. And now in these days I am seeing that it is all worth the effort, even if it is surrounded with low bush. I have a piece that is becoming a jungle and I see that from time to time the birds, Toucan, others, I see them coming from the high jungles of Guatemala to my piece of land, willing to stop at this little parcel of 15 acres. Also other animals come to the same zone, that is on this piece of land. I feel myself happy - proud - because I see them, they make my heart feel happy - rejoice - because of their noise, the fluttering and songs of the birds.
Well, it has been not too long ago, like about two weeks, since I had a deer, it was already big, his horns were small. It was very tame. It would not even run, but I couldn't catch him. He would stand still when I see him and wouldn't run away. He would just watch you because he was accustomed to being by the ranch. It was his road, he passed and passed and went to drink water in the river. Well two weeks ago I was not here, I was out for a time, for otherwise a hunter got in with his dog wouldn't have gotten on the land nor would I have let them carry a gun, but there they were, and BOOM! he shot my deer. If I was there, not even DEAD would he take it out.
So, it must have been about two years ago, or about a year ago, that Anabel and Constanza started their forest garden and invited me to take a look. So I began working around El Pilar. In this area that appears on our map, we now have a part we planted, trees we put in, valuable trees like Santa Maria, Mahogany, for example. We have about 200 plants, another few we brought from what remains of the Belizean jungle. We brought about 20 to this place, and I planted with the idea that in time, when these trees have grown, more birds will come from Guatemala, those birds that live in the high bush there, and they will come and inhabit this place.
Well, I think this is a good beginning, what we are trying to do to renew, that is, recover and replant lost trees that were destroyed by our fathers. I speak so because it is certain I participated in this. But, of course, it wasn't intentional what I did, that is, it was a necessity to find a means of survive.
Yes, we see that Bullet Tree Falls is big - growing; 1,900 inhabitants. There are many students, but maybe the students are not interested in ecotourism, one student wants a profession and other students want other things, and so on. Well that's the world. And then we think that by educating our people, like I have said, we could get lots of things and with the help of organizations in the Maya world.
Well when we say that we await the help in this part, I think that yes we could get the help from very kindly people and with the help of our powerful God. Yes, we are going get what we desire for our community of Bullet Tree Falls and also the future of surrounding communities, as well as the indigenous peoples.
~ Bullet Tree Falls, Cayo, Belize
as drawn by Amigos de El Pilar
Key
M The town of Melchor de Mencos, Guatemala
B The town of Benque Viejo del Carmen, Belize
C Village of Calla Creek, Belize
SI The town of San Ignacio, Belize
SE The town of Santa Elena, Belize
ZA Agricultural Zone
The Villager's World View Towards the Future
~ Bullet Tree Falls, Cayo, Belize
as drawn by Amigos de El Pilar
Key
M The town of Melchor de Mencos, Guatemala
B The town of Benque Viejo del Carmen, Belize
C Village of Calla Creek, Belize
SI The town of San Ignacio, Belize
SE The town of Santa Elena, Belize
ZA Agricultural Zone
ZT Working Zone
H Habitation
CR Growth
UM Multiple Uses
ZAM Buffer Zone
* This village view of their world presents an interesting comparison where the large towns of San Ignacio, Santa Elena, Benque Viejo, and Melchor de Mencos are represented as small localities in comparison in both present and future representations of the village. NOTE: The future view shows that El Pilar is part of the picture. Drawings were prepared under the guidance of Laura Hernández Pinto and Juan Carlos Fernández Alcántara, Landscapre Archiects, HC /DC.
LETTER OF THE PRESIDENT
Amigos de El Pilar (AdEP) is a group organized in Bullet Tree Falls by the residents of the riverside community in 1993. The objectives of AdEP are to participate and support in the establishment of the El Pilar Archaeological Reserve for Maya Flora and Fauna. AdEP has a vision for the future and hopes to raise the standard of living through ecotourism by implementing activities that complement the goals of the El Pilar Archaeological Reserve and developing new work opportunities and education on conservation of flora, fauna, and the archaeology of the Maya forest.
To realize these objectives, the founding members took action and formally established Amigos de El Pilar in Belize on the 7 of September 1994. At the moment, the group has 53 members of which 39 are active. The organization now has its own site on community lands with a roofed slab structure where AdEP members meet every two weeks. At these meetings, members discuss plans and desire for more development, more education, and more publicity. Part of these plans are to convert the structure into a Cultural Center, called Be Pukte (Bullet Tree Road in Mayan) which would be used for education on the importance of biodiversity and sustainable alternatives for living with our environment. Our activities revolve directly around these goals.
Amigos de El Pilar has dreams, visions, and hopes for the future. The group has taken steps to start a forest orchard garden at the group's site, Be Pukte. We are collecting seeds and seedlings donated from within the group. This will be an example for another at El Pilar because in this way the group will be involved in more activities, more promotions, more work, and more education. And the community will be in a position to take advantage of all that El Pilar can offer. The group is very, but very, interested in the El Pilar Archaeological Reserve for Maya Flora and Fauna. Dear reader, we hope that you will help and support us to make these dreams to become a reality and together we can have a better future.
In the name of the group
Marcos Garcia
President, Amigos de El Pilar
A BRIEF CHRONOLOGY OF AMIGOS DE EL PILAR
1992
May/June Daniel Silva, Area Representative, supports community clearing
at the plazas of El Pilar
1993
Anabel Ford holds two meetings with the community members presenting
idea for community based organization related to plans at El Pilar. June
30, 1993 the name AdEP was decided, members joined, and first officers
were elected (President Angel Teck, Vice president Abel Manzanero, Secretary
Sandra Manzanero, Treasurer Fred Prost).
1994
Nine general meetings of membership, one executive meeting and one event were held.
Participated in the Fiesta El Pilar (5 May 94)
Received registration certificate as a non-profit organization on 7 Sept 94.
Registration number 2566
1995
Fifteen general meetings of membership and six events were held.
The group elected a new President, Marcos Garcia (26 Feb)
Events included:
Presentation of Teo's Way (19 Mar)
Participation of President Marcos in Mobile TNC workshops (May/June)
BTF Agricultural Fair (27 May)
Fiesta El Pilar (10 June)
Global Roots project (July)
University of West Indies Workshops (Aug/Sept)
Bicycle Race (17 Sept)
1996
Sixteen general meetings of membership and four events were held.
The group elected Prisilla Canchan as Secretary (17 Mar)
Events included:
Presentation of funds to Leukemia victim
President Marcos Garcia Reviews El Pilar Archaeological Reserve from Helicopter, courtesy of 25 Flight, APC
Landscape workshop at Duplooy's
Fiesta El Pilar (8 June)
Global Roots project (July)
1997 to date
Eight general meetings of membership, one event held.
The group elected Janette Manzanero as secretary (8 June)
Landscape workshop with Hernández and Fernández
Fiesta El Pilar (31 May)