A new agreement to improve the management of archeological sites within the Maya Biosphere Reserve (MBR) should have been good news; however, the agreement will, in fact, weaken the Guatemalan institutions in charge of the protection of the MBR. Furthermore, it is clear that hidden economic interests are behind the agreement, foremost among them a huge tourism mega project that would gravely affect the most important tropical rainforest in Guatemala. An analysis of this agreement shows an increasingly erratic approach to the conservation of the MBR.
On April 23rd, Guatemalan president Alfonso Portillo agreed to create the Regional System for the Special Protection of Cultural Wealth in order to protect pre-Hispanic architecture inside the Maya Biosphere Reserve. Through the Governmental Agreement 129-2002, the president declared an ample sector of the reserve a Special Archeological Zone – one that he named The Mirador Basin.
In theory, this legal agreement should help in the battle against the archaeological looting that afflicts the reserve; however, President Portillo forgot something very important – that institutions in charge of controlling looting existed before the governmental agreement. Until April 23rd, the Institute of Anthropology and History (IDAEH) and the National Council of Protected Areas (CONAP), both with decades of existence, were in charge of the protection of the archaeological wealth of the reserve. Since the publication of the Governmental Agreement 129-2002 – a document without form, history, or regulations – the Regional System for the Special Protection of Cultural Wealth will now be expected to fulfill those responsibilities that IDAEH and CONAP were unable to during their long tenures.
The governmental agreement does not specify who will form the System, how it will operate, the amount of its budget, and what specific programs it will develop. Furthermore, the amorphous agreement opens doors for the creation of new regulations concerning the protection of the cultural wealth of the Maya reserve, even though regulations to protect sites and penalize archaeological looting have existed for many years. Moreover, this unexpected presidential decision creates confusion over the responsibilities of the Regional System for the Special Protection of Cultural Wealth, and how they will be coordinated with those of IDAEH and CONAP.
The agreement may represent disingenuous motives. Beyond the agreement lie the hidden interests of a group of archaeologists led by Richard Hansen, an archaeologist at the University of California, and a foundation of one of the wealthiest families of Guatemala, the Novella Foundation. In March of 2001, Hansen presented his project “The Mirador Basin,” with the pretension of protecting the Mirador Basin (coincidentally the same one the governmental agreement proposes to protect) from archaeological looting. This project called for the weakening of the protected status of the eastern sector of El Mirador-Río Azul National Park, and the construction of a heliport (prohibited by the Law of Protected Areas) and large-scale tourist development in the western sector. The goal of the project was to attract more than one hundred thousand people per year to the park, currently one of the most valuable pristine forests in Guatemala.
Opponents to Hansen’s project spoke out immediately. Taking into consideration the recommendations of ParksWatch and other institutions, CONAP rejected the proposed project because of its great potential to accelerate the destruction of the MBR. More than one year after Hansen’s project was rejected, this governmental agreement has brought the project back to life. It was signed even though experts have advised against it, and without the consideration of the national institutions or the Guatemalan legislation.
Other groups reacted against the agreement just as swiftly. Communities from the department of Petén, in a very unusual joint effort with timber industrialists, presented on May 22nd an appeal of unconstitutionality against the Governmental Agreement 129-2002. Both local communities from within the MBR and CONAP have, again, solicited the participation of ParksWatch to help persuade the President to withdraw his support for the agreement. The final decision will be made by the Court of Constitutionality, the President, and the civil society. Hopefully, they will all take new steps towards the protection of the Maya Biosphere Reserve against projects that ignore its ecological value.
ParksWatch: June 2002