Indigenous people oppose timber business in Guatemala

Santa Cruz del QuichéGuatemala exports more than 500 million dollars worth of forest products every year, according to data from the Guatemalan Forest Information System (Sifgua). A business that has also been growing in recent years in a country where 33% of the territory is covered by forest. Although more than half of these forests are protected, deforestation has slowed but not stopped: the country loses about 200 square kilometers of green forest every year.

In Quiché, indigenous organizations warn of the danger posed by deforestation. The K'iche' Peoples Council (CPK) has been fighting for years against the granting of licenses to cut down trees in this department in the northwest of the Central American country. Despite not being one of the regions with the most forestry industries in Guatemala (there are only 18 companies of this type, while in the department of Chimaltenango there are 127), the Quiché Mayan people believe that the drought that is affecting their corn plantations (the milpa) is directly related to the concession.

"The forest used to be very dense here, but now it's not anymore, because there are fewer trees and the new ones are coming," explains Sebastiana Par, one of the CPK leaders, as she walks through one of the communities most affected by deforestation in her municipality, Santa Cruz del Quiché, the capital of the region. On the ground where she walks there are remains that show that trees had been cut down: several stumps where there had once been pines, and ground completely covered in sawdust, with bark and branches lying on the ground.

There are still a few pine trees standing on this small piece of land, but their branches have been cut off and marked with an X, ready to be cut down. There are several bundles stacked along the path and there are even some wooden planks drying against the wall of one of the community houses. A man appears on the path. His name is Miguel Ángel and he explains that his cornfield is dying because there is no water. He says that the reason for all this is that too many trees are being cut down and that, in his opinion, this is preventing the rain.

Is the problem the licenses?

The regional director of the National Forest Institute (INAB), Byron Palacios, acknowledges that there is a direct link between forests and climate, but points out that the problem is not the licenses for felling trees. "In Quiché there are only 87 licenses and they are very small, for plots of land between 10,000 and 20,000 square meters. In total, there are about 200 square kilometers for wood production in the department," says Palacios. Deforestation is not directly related to forestry industries, but to the high consumption of wood for energy purposes by the Guatemalan population, according to the regional director of the INAB. In the Central American country, some 30 million cubic meters of wood are consumed per year, of which only about 500,000 come from forestry licenses and one and a half million are extracted from plantations exempt from licenses, says Palacios. "A person consumes approximately 2.7 m³ of wood a year in a disorderly manner and without restoring the forest," says the regional director of the institution.

To address this situation, Inab invests almost 8 million euros a year in forest incentive programs that benefit some 12,000 families in Quiché alone. A person who benefits from one of these programs receives about 400 euros a year for every 10,000 square meters of protected land, in exchange for avoiding illegal logging, the incidence of pests and the risk of fires. However, these incentive programs do not prohibit the owner of the land from felling their trees on a small scale, provided that they commit to recovering the forest. A pine tree in good condition can cost between 175 and 230 euros. "Inab takes advantage of poverty. People often sell their trees in order to eat," says CPK leader Sebastiana Par. According to indigenous organizations, in addition, granting licenses to cut down trees would violate their right to be consulted on projects to exploit natural resources in their territories, as established by ILO Convention 169.

"Racist" State

In 2011, some 28,000 people rejected the development of hydroelectric, mining and carpentry projects in a consultation held in the 97 communities of the capital of the region. "When we hold consultations, they are not followed up. We are in a racist and exclusive state," says Par. But Inab maintains that the licenses are always granted on private land and comply with what the forestry law says.

The CPK considers that the felling of trees also violates their worldview. "Deforestation not only causes drought, but also affects our spirituality," says Par. Therefore, they believe that in order to stop climate change, their vision of relating to the environment should be taken into account more. "If the sacred character of nature was understood, there would be less global warming," stresses the CPK leader.

* This text is part of the project 'Water is life', by AlterNativa Exchange with Indigenous Peoples, with the support of the DevReporter 2019 Grant, promoted with funding from the Frame, Voice, Report project by the European Union, LaFede.cat, the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation and the Barcelona City Council.