MESA REDONDA 1997

Envisioning the Future of El Pilar:

A Model for Conservation and Development of Cultural and Natural Resource in the Maya Forest

by Anabel Ford, Ph.D

Introduction

Conservation of cultural and natural resources is one of the most important global long-term goals for the coming century. Yet, efforts to accomplish this have often led to the compromise of important short-term economic needs at regional and local levels. This is clearly evident in the Maya forest region. A model conservation program must balance short-term with long-term objectives to attain a sustainable framework for resource management.

The El Pilar Program has the great potential to evolve an unique conservation design incorporating local community needs, government development agenda, and international environmental concerns. This can be accomplished by a collaborative consortium of individuals whose enthusiasm and experience can be brought to the Maya forest region.

The core of the El Pilar Program is to sustain the complex habitats of the Maya forest and to preserve the irreplaceable cultural resources of the ancient and contemporary populations of the region. Community involvement in preserving traditions is critical to the success of conservation management. Promoting ecological biodiversity and sustainable economic development will conserve and enhance the contemporary landscape of the Maya forest.

The Archaeological Research Base

Regional settlement distribution, local community subsistence patterns, and individual household organization of the ancient Maya provide material evidence for the evolution of sustainable economies. Archaeological research on the Maya underscore the complexity of interrelationships between cultural systems and environment over time. These patterns and interpretations have implications when we consider the future of the Maya forest and the people there today.

The Belize River Archaeological Settlement Survey (BRASS) has compiled regional settlement data, identified local community patterns and investigated aspects of household organization evident in the archaeological record of the central Maya lowlands. The ancient Maya economic landscape reflects a continuum of land use strategies, from densely settled, intensively used uplands, dispersed and extensively used transitional zones, to unsettled swamps that represent a land use mosaic.

As a representative major civic center, the construction histories of El Pilar's temples, plazas, and palaces will reveal clues to the development of Maya civilization, and the examination of surrounding residential components can expose the nature of the ancient urban economic landscape. Archaeological research will collect these data and provide the basis for a new appreciation of the relevance of the past. Stabilization of the deterioration of the ruins, consolidation of representative buildings and temples, conservation of the preserved architecture, along with the reconstruction of example Maya houses in their forest gardens will be a novel and educational attraction for local, regional, and international visitors, representing one of a kind in the Mundo Maya. The revival of the ancient traditions of El Pilar provide the context for a new perception of Maya prehistory, one that takes into account the complexity and continuities of the Maya forest along with its peoples past and present.

The BRASS/El Pilar Program is rooted in the study of the human/environment relationship. It draws on the foundation of cultural ecology, interpreting evolutionary changes in strategies for survival. The composition of the Maya forest today bears the imprint of ancient human habitation and resource management. The goal of the El Pilar Program is to evaluate continuities and shifts in the evolution of the human/environment relationship through time and across space.

Agricultural Design and the Structure of the Maya Forest

Agricultural technologies evolve to fulfill the food needs of society. Traditional agriculture is focused on the household. Relying on strategies of polycultivation that emulate the native environmental structure., traditional poycultivation strategies involve an "industrious evolution" of labor investment rather than an industrial revolution based on scarce capital.

The ecological structure of the Maya forest is a relic of the dynamic relationship in which humans played an integral part. This relationship extends back more than four millennia to the initial agricultural pioneers of the Maya forest region, the ancestors of the ancient Maya civilization and the heritage of contemporary Maya farmers. The large contiguous stands of forest are a testimony to the efficacy of ancient Maya practices. While the Classic Maya collapse affected the human populations, today's endangered plants and animals survived only now to be threatened with extinction. Therein lies the ecological lesson that must be perceived to build a sound basis for conservation in the future.

Traditional production systems of the tropics are polycultivational. To mimic the forest structure, polycultivation evolved to minimize instability, prevent degradation and integrate both intensive and extensive labor techniques that maximize production. Heterogeneous and biodiverse, the forest gardens constituted the strength of the Maya community in the past, as well as today, by relying on the traditional knowledge of local farming households. Today, villagers are rapidly abandoning time-proven methods in exchange for introduced technologies. Deep linguistic terms speak to these traditions and describe a continuum of economic qualities of the forest, denoting a long-term human coexistence with the environment. Kanan K'ax describes a "well cared for" forest, evoking a concept of stewardship; K'ax il kab refers to a forest with beehives; and Ka'kab K'ax indicates a forest with good agricultural soil quality.

At El Pilar, the innovative polycultivation design is based on a household plan and includes annuals and perennials interspersed with tree crops, providing an ongoing source of innovation for the community, fostering resource conservation and community development that aligns with, rather than opposes, the natural regenerative processes of the tropical forest. Through farmer participation and networking, shared experience and knowledge will go beyond the boundaries of the reserve, restoring the local landscape to a state of greater biological diversity.

Community Involvement, Investment, and Stewardship

To accomplish the goal of improving living standards and self sufficiency of the regional community of the Maya forest, the immediate and short-term needs of families must be incorporated into the long-term agenda of sustainability. No reserve exists within a vacuum and, in order to survive and thrive, the local population must assume a stewardship role or the ultimate conservation aims may not be achieved.

Cooperative associations have already been established with Amigos de El Pilar, a community-based organization to promote local participation in the reserve. Their goal is to develop cooperative enterprises in tourism and agriculture that increase villagers' economic stakehold in the reserve. The leadership role they are assuming and the self determination they are gaining in the process, builds a foundation upon which the future success of the El Pilar model depends.

Promoting Ecotourism at El Pilar

The tourism industry has become increasingly focused on traditional communities and cultures as well as the natural environmental wonders. Mesoamerica has become a flourishing travel destination, and the Maya world has evolved as a vital niche for adventure and ecotourists. Links between specialty travel firms in the international arena and regional travel services in the Maya area are essential to the development of this market, and new destinations contribute significantly to its appeal.

The El Pilar Program has set the stage for ecotourism with local guides and hotels, regional publications, and international promotion in media and tour books. Villagers working through Amigos de El Pilar in education and training workshops, lectures and tours with the schools, and through participation in the archaeological research are identifying the value of their stakehold in El Pilar. Further, the program has hosted events, such as the annual Fiesta El Pilar, that draw national and regional attention. Lectures and articles in Belize, Guatemala and Mexico have increased regional knowledge and appreciation of the site. Public relations information has been circulated to international guide books and posted on the World Wide Web* featured in Archaeology Magazine in 1997. Funding from international agencies, such as Central American Commission for Environment and Development (CCAD), Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation and US Agency for International Development (USAID) has also elevated the visibility of El Pilar on the global front, providing a springboard for the future.

The Foundation for the El Pilar Model

Park management and planning is fundamental to the reserve's future. Informed designs are based on inventories of the ecological and cultural resources within the protected area. Additionally, identification of stakeholders, incorporation of public interests, articulation of the mission, and a clear set of objectives for sustainable maintenance of the reserve is essential. Finally, the extent of conservation goals, the issues of access and education in the design, and the long-term funding needs must be addressed. The Mesa Redonda El Pilar promoted the foundation for the program.

The objectives of the El Pilar Management Plan incorporate the diverse dimensions of the program. Short-term strategies for community involvement must be pursued. Long-term concerns for conservation of the ancient architecture and the environment will be integrated into the plan. Educational and interpretive designs for the park and surrounding landscape must also be considered. These aspects are critical to establishing the reserve on a lasting base, where the potential of El Pilar as an integrative model includes the concerns and desires for both resource conservation and economic development.

The Management Plan must also take into account the location of El Pilar between El Peten, Guatemala, and Cayo, Belize. This unusual setting impacts the research and development activities of El Pilar. The size of the civic center is presently unknown as the most comprehensive studies have thus far been concentrated in Belize. Despite this, preliminary surveys into the western section of El Pilar, in Guatemala, demonstrate its importance and interviews with the Guatemalan community of La Zarca suggest that there is considerably more monumental architecture to be identified, mapped, and inventoried as part of the greater site core.

The physical situation of El Pilar raises the need for protection both in Belize and Guatemala. Resource management designs for El Pilar need to consider the contiguous sections in Belize and Guatemala as a whole. The natural environment, cultural resources, access for tourism, and adjacent contemporary peoples all need to figure prominently in the master plan and the final product: The El Pilar Archaeological reserve for Maya Flora and Fauna.