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THE SELVA MAYA
Other Important Land Uses, Human
Activities, and Threats to the Selva Maya
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Lighting dried slash in preparation for planting.
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Extractive
Industries
In addition to the chicle, xate, and pimienta industries, commercial logging, mainly of mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) is an important industry in the Selva Maya. Within the Maya Biosphere Reserve, all of these industries
are managed, based on a system of 20-year concessions that have been awarded to logging companies and to a number of local communities. These concessions, allowing extraction of both timber and non-timber forest products,
are operated under management plans calculated to yield sustainable economic benefits, while protecting the native biota. However, making these industries, especially commercial logging, sustainable, profitable, and ecologically
acceptable, presents a significant challenge.
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This stage of deforestation often
supports a high density of certain
forest-edge species--for a
while. But
domestication of such landscapes
often progresses to an extreme.
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Immigration and Deforestation
By far the greatest threat to the reserve is that posed by uncontrolled immigration of rural poor, who generally cut and burn the forest in order to grow corn. The population of Pet�n increases by about 10% yearly, mainly
due to immigration from other parts of the nation.
Many of these immigrants pursue a living of shifting cultivation, often within the Maya Biosphere Reserve and other officially designated protected areas--because these are the areas where forest remains-- where a landless
peasant may be able to squat for a time, cut and burn the forest, and plant a crop.
Responses of Government and the International Conservation
Community
Many Guatemalan and international conservation and development groups are working in this region, helping turn the conservation promise of the Maya Biosphere Reserve into reality. Efforts range from assistance to Guatemalan
government agencies in reserve management, creation and assistance of small businesses as an alternative to deforestation, technical assistance to small farmers (as a means of stabilizing agriculture rather than continually
felling more forest), and other, related initiatives.
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Some areas become monocultures of bracken
fern and burn nearly every
year.
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The Critical Role of Foreign Aid
Financial and technical assistance from various nations have been critical to these efforts. Assistance from the U.S. government comes mainly through USAID--the U.S. Agency for International Development--which has invested
millions of dollars in efforts to assist the protection of the Maya Biosphere Reserve. This is money very well spent, even from the standpoint of narrowly defined interests of U.S. taxpayers. For one thing, millions of
songbirds that nest in woodlots throughout the eastern U.S. and Canada spend half or more of each year in the vast forests of the MBR (see later).
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Creation of new
roads into pristine
forest is a major factor contributing
to deforestation.
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Other Threats to the Reserve
In addition to uncontrolled immigration and deforestation, other factors posing a threat to the integrity of the MBR are those of oil exploration and extraction, and proposed new road-building projects. Oil has been extracted
from the northwest portion of the reserve for several years, and leases for exploration have been allotted throughout much of the reserve. Whether oil exploration and development will ultimately take place over much of
the reserve, and if so, the nature of impacts on conservation values, remain to be seen. While many conservationists are opposed to the prospect of further oil development, others believe that such development is inevitable,
and that it could, in theory, be conducted in a minimally damaging fashion.
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The Great Curassow is a highly
sought
wild game species.
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Penetration of new roads into erstwhile wilderness areas often opens them to uncontrolled immigration and piecemeal deforestation. Hence it is disturbing to many conservationists that a new road has been proposed, that
would pass through the heart of the Maya Biosphere Reserve, linking Tikal with the highway network in Campeche, M�xico, to the north. Many fear that this road and associated development would not only sever important
biological connections within the reserve, but would start a new front of uncontrolled immigration and deforestation within the heart of the reserve. Hence many conservationists are involved in lobbying against the construction
of this proposed road.
Hunting is also a potential threat to conservation goals within the reserve. Subsistence meat hunting is an important part of petenero forest culture, and several large mammal and bird species are taken. Excessive hunting
could lead to depletion of key species populations. Properly controlled, hunting may be able to provide an important protein source for forest villagers far into the future, and various groups (especially the Wildlife
Conservation Society) are working to ensure that hunting is conducted in a sustainable fashion.
 Literature
Cited for The Selva Maya.
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