Guatemalan communities defend forest from narcotraffickers: Why that matters to the US
BY MARK MOROGE, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 10/12/20 03:00 PM EDT 51
TheHill.com
Guatemalan communities defend forest from narcotraffickers: Why that matters to the US
BY MARK MOROGE, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 10/12/20 03:00 PM EDT
Guatemalan communities defend forest from narcotraffickers: Why that matters to the US
© Getty Images
A recent Washington Post article about Guatemala’s Laguna del Tigre National Park had all the makings of a Hollywood thriller: swaths of forest set ablaze to forge illicit landing strips, a crashed plane sending bricks of cocaine sailing into the rainforest, jets filled with $100 million dollars’ worth of drugs taking off for the U.S.
But for anyone concerned about U.S. security, this story offers no entertainment value. It’s highly alarming.
Laguna del Tigre, which sits on the western side of Guatemala’s magnificent 5 million-acre Maya Biosphere Reserve, is largely undefended — a no man’s land. It can be hard for Americans, accustomed to the United States’ pristine public lands, to imagine how a national park could be so vulnerable to crime and deforestation. But in northern Guatemala, “strict” park protection often just doesn’t work.
So what does work? What keeps narcotraffickers out and forests standing?
The answer lies on the eastern side of the reserve, where nine community concessions (so called because the Guatemalan government “conceded” the right to use the forest sustainably) have maintained a near-zero deforestation rate for more than 20 years, while creating bustling, local, legal economies built on sustainable forestry — while keeping organized crime at bay.
Like in the American West of the 1900s, the remoteness and abundant space in the Maya Biosphere Reserve can mean lawlessness — or the opportunity to make an honest living from the land.
More:
https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/520616-guatemalan-communities-defend-forest-from-narcotraffickers-why
