Last week Friday and Saturday, the Indigenous Mayan Leaders of Belize and Guatemala met in Poptun Peten. The purpose was to collaborate to decrease the number of cross border incursions and destruction of the natural resources in the Chiquibul-Maya Mountains. The idea is to unite efforts of the communities living along the Belize-Guatemala border to try to deal with the environmental, social and economic problems which causes destruction of forests on both sides.
The representatives of the communities developed a draft declaration with requests and recommendations on how to achieve that goal. One important point of the discussion was that the governments must pay attention to the communities located near the border on both sides. This can help to reduce the number of incursions and prevent armed encounters between the illegals and the military who must protect the forests.
This draft declaration is to contain suggestions and recommendations related to territory, natural resources, and ancestral knowledge. Once it is finalized, it will be presented to the governments of Belize and Guatemala.
The participating institutions were COACAP, Aj Ral Chooch, Casa de la Esperanza, Comunidad LingüÃstica Maya Q'eqchi, Comunidad LingüÃstica Maya Mopan, Toledo Alcalde Association, the Commonwealth of Communities of South Peten, the National Council of Protected Areas (CONAP), the Asociacion Balam and the Friends for Conservation and Development.
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