C O N T E N T S
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(1) The Crisis in Brief: Peten, Guatemala and the Maya Itza
(2) Statement from the Bio Itza Committee
(3) Authorities for You to Contact
(4) Open Letter from the EcoLogic Development Fund
CRISIS IN BRIEF
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* The Maya Itza are one of 21 Mayan linguistic groups in
Guatemala.
* The Itza are on the verge of cultural extinction as fewer
than one hundred people now speak the language fluently.
* In 1991, the Itza of San Jose, Peten banded together to
halt illegal logging in their municipal forests and
established THE COMMITTEE OF THE BIOSFERA ITZA RESERVE.
* Since that time this community organization has effectively
protected a 36-square kilometer municipal forest reserve
and promoted activities for environmental conservation,
cultural revitalization, and community development.
* San Jose?s current Mayor has recently announced under
municipal decree that he is disbanding this community
group. Like his predecessors he sees greater personal and
financial benefit in logging the forest reserve than
protecting it.
* The Mayor has appointed immigrants to serve on the committee.
These immigrants have been very clear in expressing their
desire to cut down the forest for agricultural plots.
* The Mayor asked the logging company, Barren Commercial, to
improve roads in his municipality. In exchange, the
company is demanding logs for payment. The Mayor has
promised to pay with the trees on Municipal ejido lands.
The BIOSFERA ITZA RESERVE is one of the few areas of
the municipal ejido lands that is still forested.
* To reverse this injustice, the Bio Itza Committee has
requested immediate letters from international
organizations to be directed at local authorities.
* Letters already sent by international organizations to
local and national authorities have made a critical difference
in drawing attention to this problem. This has helped to
prevent the Mayor from forcibly removing the Bio Itza
Committee?s forest guards from the reserve. However, IT
IS IMPORTANT THAT PEOPLE AND INSTITUTIONS IN THE INTERNATIONAL
COMMUNITY CONTINUE DRAWING ATTENTION TO THE CURRENT CONFLICT
IN SAN JOSE.
* To protect its forests, the Bio Itza Committee has hired a
lawyer to protect itself against the blatant illegal actions
of the Mayor that include:
1. never including the Committee in a meeting to
defend itself against the Mayor?s accusation that
the Committee has acted irresponsibly;
2. attempting to confiscate all material donations
received by the Committee, which include computers, a
vehicle and a community center;
3. violating new Guatemalan laws, created as a result
of the recent peace accords, which explicitly give the
Mayan people the right to participate in the management
and protection of their traditional lands.
* While many lawyers have assured members of the Bio Itza
Committee that they can win this case, they need immediate
financial assistance to cover their legal expenses.
* THIS IS A SITUATION WHEN A LETTER AND FINANCIAL SUPPORT CAN
BOTH SAVE A TROPICAL FOREST AND ENSURE THAT THE EFFORTS OF A
THREATENED CULTURAL GROUP CONTINUE.
Please send your letters of support and contributions to:
Reginaldo Chayax, Presidente
Comite Bio Itza
San Jose, Peten, Guatemala
OR
EcoLogic Development Fund
c/o the Bio Itza Committee Legal Fund
PO Box 383405
Cambridge, MA 02238-3405; USA
tel 617 441-6300 fax 617 441-6307
email ecologic@igc.org
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LETTER OF APPEAL
WRITTEN BY THE BIO ITZA COMMITTEE
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
November 19, 1996
DEAR FRIENDS IN THE CONSERVATION AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES COMMUNITY.
The Committee of the Biosfera Itza reserve wishes to make
known, both nationally and internationally, the following. Since
1991, when the reserve was founded, this organization has pioneered
the conservation of the environment in the Department of Peten,
Guatemala in Central America. As the last indigenous inhabitants of
the Peten?s forest, the Maya Itza have fought to maintain the forest,
culture, and language of their great civilization. The reserve
protects 6 km2 of threatened primary forest under the guidance
of a Management Plan; we also have a Forest Inventory, a map of
the area, archaeological studies of the sites within the reserve,
and five on-going projects that are compatible with the environment.
Furthermore, we have received technical and/or financial assistance
from the following institutions: the University of Michigan,
Cultural Survival, IIZ-Austrian Embassy, ProPeten/CI,
TNC, CONAP, CATIE/RENAR, CCAD, EcoLogic Development Fund,
and SEGEPLAN.
Unfortunately, for the past three years the Biosfera
Itza Committee has suffered at the hands of the current municipal
leader, Julian Tesucun y Tesucun, who, together with members of
the immigrant population, wants to extract the forest resources
protected within the reserve. With this purpose in mind,
the municipality held a meeting Saturday, November 16, 1996,
in which Mr. Tesucun y Tesucun inappropriately permitted the
election of a new Committee to manage the Biosfera Itza.
Those in attendance represent the immigrant population and
other persons with personal agendas. Their interests are not
the well-being and development of the Maya Itza community; rather
their primary goal is to log the reserve and divide it up for the
extraction of forest resources--thereby converting it into a desert.
As such, we urgently protest before you, asking for
your moral and financial support to exert pressure on the
authorities and institutions whose role it is to protect the
rights of indigenous communities and the environment. We want
this situation to be resolved through the appropriate
legal channels so that we can live and work in peace for the
good of the environment and future generations. We are the
first indigenous organization to worry about our natural environment
in the northern forested region of the Peten, which has suffered
deforestation and destruction due to the increasing number of
immigrants from other parts of the country.
With the hope of receiving your support, we thank you
for your consideration. For more information, please communicate
with us by means of the community telephone in San Jose
([502] 928-8135).
Ecologically,
REGINALDO CHAYAX HUEX FELICIANO TZUL COLLI
PRESIDENT VICE PRESIDENT
LUIS FERNANDO LOPEZ CESAR MUNOZ SUNTECUN
JUAN JULIO TUT BERTA HUEX CHAN
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
AUTHORITIES FOR YOU TO WRITE IN ORDER OF PRIORITY:
(1) Senor Efrain Oliva Muralles
Gobernador
Gobernacion Departamental del Peten
Ciudad Flores, Peten, Guatemala
Tel/Fax: 011 [502] 926-1383
(2) Aura Mariana Otzoy Colaj
Presidente de la Comision de Medio Ambiente
Congreso de la Republica de Guatemala
Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala
Tel/Fax 011 [502] 232-1260 (Ask for the "extension 327"
- tres dos siete)
(3) Ing. Juan Francisco Asturias Fajardo, Coordinador Nacional
Comision Nacional del Medio Ambiente, CONAMA
5 Avenida 8-07, Zona 10
Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala
Tel: 011 [502] 332-7174
Fax: 011 [502] 362-6845
(4) Excelentisimo Senor Presidente
Alvaro Arzu
Palacio Nacional
Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala
EMAIL: AlvaroArzu@guate.net
PLEASE SEND A COPY OF ALL LETTERS TO:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Reginaldo Chayax Huex AND/OR Shaun Paul
Presidente EcoLogic Development Fund
Comite Bio Itza PO Box 383405
San Jose, Peten GUATEMALA Cambridge, MA 02238 USA
fax c/o PROPETEN [502] 926-0495 email: news@ecologic.org
fax (617) 441-6307
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OPEN LETTER FROM THE ECOLOGIC DEVELOPMENT FUND
April 2, 1997
Senor Efrain Oliva Muralles
Gobernador
Gobernacion Departamental del Peten
Ciudad Flores, Peten, Guatemala
Tel/Fax: 011 [502] 926-1383
Dear Governor,
Congratulations on your new position as Governor of the Peten.
I am writing on behalf of the EcoLogic Development Fund, an
international charitable organization, to bring to your attention
a problem of great concern to us regarding San Jose, Peten.
Both my organization and many other international agencies have
received reports concerning the questionable dissolution in San
Jose, on November 16, 1996 of the "Committee of the Biosfera Itza
Reserve" by Mayor Julian Tesucun y Tesucun. If these reports are
true, I am confident that you will join us in supporting the valiant
efforts of the Bio Itza Committee to protect their natural
resources, promote the sustainable use of these resources,
and preserve of their language and culture.
The Bio Itza Committee was formally established in September
1991 in San Jose when Itza community members formed their general
assembly. The area in which their development has been centered
is located in the buffer zone of the Mayan Biosphere along the
perimeter of El Zotz-San Miguel-La Pelotada Biotope. This
36-square kilometer area was conceded by the Honorable Corporation
of the Municipality of San Jose as a municipal forest reserve
(in the 34-91 session, of the folio 312-317 of the Act No. 37).
The Bio Itza Committee, under the leadership of Reginaldo Chayax
Huex and Feliciano Tzul Colli, developed a management plan and
established projects to protect this fragile area. These projects
include the protection of San Jose's threatened forests, the
reforestation of degraded areas, the promotion of ecotourism,
and most importantly, the education of Maya Itza youth in their
nearly lost traditions and language. The Committee has been
effective not only in its conservation work, but also in promoting
the economic development and cultural well-being of the Maya Itza
people.
Due to its important work, many national and international
organizations have supported and are willing to continue
supporting the Bio Itza Committee. Institutions that have
joined forces with the Bio Itza Committee by donating
their financial, technological, and human resources include:
Secretaria de Planificacion Economica (SEGEPLAN); Comision
Centroamericana de Ambiente y Desarollo (CCAD); UNESCO,
UNICEF, the EcoLogic Development Fund, USA; University of
Michigan, USA; Instituto para la Cooperacion Internacional,
Austria; US Agency for International Development (US AID).
We support the leaders of the Bio Itza Committee, elected
by the Itza themselves, in their claim to their rights as
indigenous people under United Nations Convention ILO 169,
Article 15, ratified by the Government of Guatemala, which
states that indigenous people have the right to participate in
the use, management, and conservation of their natural resources.
The removal of the Bio Itza Committee's leadership and its
replacement by three of the Mayor's relatives and recent
immigrants with little understanding of the local culture and
intent on converting the forest into agricultural lands
is in clear violation of this Convention.
Given the nature of this conflict within San Jose, please join
us in supporting the formation of a multisectoral commission to
investigate and mediate a resolution of the current conflict.
I hope that you will consider joining us in supporting the
Office of Human Rights of the Archbishop to lead a commission
that should include representatives of Procuraduria de los Derechos
Humanos; Ministerio Publico; Congressional Environmental Commission;
Congressional Human Rights Commission; the Office of the Governor
of Peten; the National Commission for the Environment (CONAMA);
and the Ecological School of San Jose.
Both the EcoLogic Development Fund and many other international
agencies would be most grateful to you for any action taken by
your office to settle the conflict in San Jose for the well
being of the Maya Itza and all of Peten. We, in turn, are
committed to investing financial and technical assistance to
promote economic development and conservation in San Jose.
The Bio Itza Committee has realized projects that serve not only
as a model to other Guatemalans, but to the international community
as well. I am sure that they would welcome you if you visited them
to see first-hand the results of their efforts at reforestation and
ecosystem preservation. We believe that this fragile parcel of
land should remain with the Bio Itza Committee, which has shown
the desire and ability to improve and preserve it.
On behalf of the government you represent and in the interest
of preserving the environment and upholding the human rights of
the Maya Itza, we thank you for your assistance in resolving this
urgent matter.
Thank you again for your attention.
Sincerely,
Shaun Paul, President
EcoLogic Development Fund
cc: Ing. Juan Francisco Asturias Fajardo, Coordinador
Nacional, CONAMA
Presidente de la Comision de Medio Ambiente
Lic. Manuel Barquin, Delegado Departamental, Peten;
Procuraduria General de la Nacion
Arq. Jorge Cabrera, Director Ejecutivo, CCAD
Senor Reginaldo Chayax Huex, Presidente, Comite Bio Itza
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This alert was provided by the ECOLOGIC DEVELOPMENT FUND
(enews@ecologic.org), P.O. Box 3405, Cambridge, MA 02238-3405 USA
EcoLogic is a nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing the
destruction of biodiverse tropical ecosystems by advancing economic
development and self-determination among local communities in
threatened habitats.
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