Planning the El Pilar Archaeological Reserve
by Anabel Ford, Ph.D
Through consensus, five major areas of integrated research and development at El Pilar have been defined. Archaeological research drives the program; the reserve surrounds an ancient Maya center, the Maya forest is a relic of ancient Maya selection, the conservation strategy for cultural and natural resources pivots on archaeological research, and the sustainable polycultivation model of household gardening relates to interpretations of the ancient Maya community template. Moreover, objectives of the contiguous friendship park tie directly to the location of the archaeological monuments of El Pilar: the ancient Maya causeway that is destined to play a role in a contemporary problem.
Resource management and conservation are global concerns but local and regional economic development plays an essential role. Further, stewardship is a community issue, and without local participation, the future of El Pilar would be bleak. Government participation in Belize and Guatemala has been initiated, local community involvement has been established with adjacent villages and with the private tourism sector, and the regional ecotourism market has a growing involvement in the new El Pilar destination. These community development links are critical to the long-term conservation goals of the program.
The ecological component is integrated into the archaeological research in terms of the environment. Investigations of forest structure, economic plants, zoological adaptations, and the interactions of cultural domains of humans and the natural domains of the environment are critical bases for interpreting the long-term adaptive strategies of the ancient Maya. Such interpretations form the basis of the forest garden polycultivation design that must have been the main source of subsistence for inhabitants of the ancient Maya forest and which can provide alternative sustainable strategies for contemporary inhabitants as well.
The El Pilar Program is dependent on broad scale cooperation among community stakeholders, national governments, and international agencies. The integrated management of the shared resources impacts development of the friendship park and the implementation of the overall management plan. These areas involve both governmental and community participation to enact the ultimate design.
As the cornerstone of the program, the archaeology at El Pilar links both the research and development components. Economic improvement and issues of management and administration are tied to the tourism aspects of the reserve focused on the ancient Maya. Governmental support for reserve management, while seeking revenues from tourism, is also related to resource conservation concerns among the international community. The relationships between the varied components of the program are mediated through an ecological approach to sustainability as interpreted from the past, as understood in the present, and as projected for the future. The details of the research and development components are specified in the following sections.
