The Future of Petén

SAN FRANCISCO — When I left Guatemala last December, I never thought I would return so soon. I had spent the better part of six months based in the western highlands, with a too-short foray into Petén.

As a tourist in El Remate, a languid town hugging the eastern shores of Lago Petén Itzá, I was struck by Petén’s draw for foreigners and Guatemalans alike. Tourists come visit the Mayan cities and observe the wildlife. Guatemalans move to Petén hoping to get ahead economically. Many of the locals I met last year weren’t really local. They had moved up to Petén in recent years to buy land or try to earn a better living.

In much of Guatemala, land is either owned by wealthy oligarchs who carved out coffee and banana plantations generations ago, or else parceled out in little plots that checker the mountains. If you don’t already have land, it’s very difficult to get. Petén is a still a frontier, with vast tracts of wilderness that no one, not even the government, fully controls. In a country where millions struggle to subsist off the land, Petén seems to offer promise.

Looking ahead to our trek, I am eager to travel further into the countryside. I want to understand the concerns of ordinary people whose lives are so intertwined with the fate of the forest. I want to know how Guatemalans of all walks see the jungle — as the center of ancient Mayan culture, as a carbon sink, as a bounty to be harvested, as land that could be farmed — because these will shape what happens in the years to come.