The Future of Petén

A new report by CONAP, Guatemala’s national parks agency, and the Wildlife Conservation Society, predicts an intense year to come for forest fires in northern Guatemala. Each year, forest fires burn large sections of old-growth tropical forest in Petén, Guatemala’s northernmost province. Some fires begin naturally. Others are set by farmers, ranchers, or drug traffickers [...]

On April 30, the Inter-American Development Bank approved $907,780 in funding for sustainable tourism development in northern Petèn. The Executing Agency is the Fundación Para El Desarrollo de Guatemala, FUNDESA.

From what we’ve heard, “Cuatro Balam” is a name with symbolic resonance. Bayron Castellanos, of the NGO Balam (a separate entity from the government plan), tells us it’s not geographic reference but an allusion to Maya cosmology where the four cardinal directions have to be in balance. In other words, what they do in the [...]

On July 16, when Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom presented the Cuatro Balam plan for increased tourism and environmental protection within the Maya Biosphere Reserve, he showed the following video: The video invokes the wisdom of the ancient Maya, their superior knowledge of the heavens and the natural world. It goes on to paint a picture [...]

Richard Hansen, Director of the Mirador Basin Project and head archaeologist at El Mirador archaeological site was named Environmentalist of the Year by Latin Trade magazine. Latin Trade today announced the winners of the Latin Trade Bravo Business Awards intended to “honor government and business leaders for their contributions to progress in Latin America.” The [...]

SAN FRANCISCO — One of the strangest things about Guatemala is how close it is to the US. And how easy to leave. In our plane, we effortlessly crossed the border where Mexico tries to keep the Guatemalans out, then cleared the wall the US is building to keep the Mexicans out. Just four and [...]

FLORES, Guatemala — Today we interviewed Juan Trujillo of Rainforest Alliance, current acting mayor of Carmelita, former president of the Carmelita forest concession. Trujillo describes himself as a skeptic-turned-believer in the concessions concept over the 11-year evolution of Carmelita’s concession. The concession, with its assembly, committees and elected leaders, is a much a political body [...]

Yesterday we completed our two-day return hike from El Mirador to Carmelita. The bajos again felt muddy and endless, but with the help of an early start and a mule ride, we made it out. On our own, without the archaeologists for the first time in many days, our group of four felt small. On [...]

Today head archaeologist Richard Hansen continued our tour of monumental architecture, while discussing his plans for the development of ecotourism at El Mirador. Hansen is convinced that the only way to stop deforestation is to create a legally protected 810,000-acre no-cut area around the archaeological sites here, bounded by the natural borders of the Mirador [...]

It’s the end of our first full day in the ancient Mayan city of El Mirador. We slogged fifty or so miles on foot to get here, over two days. The hike in took us through the muddy lowland bajos or swamp areas, then up on an ancient Mayan causeway until we reached El Mirador. [...]