Fires rapidly shrink rainforest

2005-06-01 09:31

Franz Smets

Flores - There are only a few paths through the wilderness of the rainforest near Peten, 500km north of Guatemala City.

Vast tracts of land that used to be part of the Central American rainforest are burning. Squatters, farmers and peasants have burned a several kilometre-wide swath through the forest.

Every time nature attempts to reassert itself and grow back, another fire is started to push it back.

Large areas of forest are burning everywhere. Fewer trees, more livestock, more riches, farmers argue.

"The forest doesn't matter at all to them," says David Dudenhoefer of Forest-Alliance.

It's been a century since the Guatemalans began the second colonisation of the rain forest that marks the geographic divide between North and Central America.

The Mayas built their centre in the ancient forest here in the first millennium, stretching across Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. When they left their cities, the forest came back, turning the empire of the Mayas into a forest of overgrown mounds.

Forest home to thousands of people

Many people from the south, desperate for a piece of land, are trying to settle here illegally.

Thirty years ago, 30 000 people lived in the region. Today, more than 400 000 people live in more than 200 settlements.

Some 130 firefighters and 400 soldiers stand ready to fight fires. As of mid May, there had already been 48 large fires to fight.

No one counts the agricultural burnings and no one fights them. Those are usually started shortly before the rainy season, so the peasants have time to harvest their crops: corn, wheat and marijuana.

"The forest was just in the way for the Spanish. The English took the wood, chiefly mahogany. And our governments set the woods on fire to smoke out the guerillas," complain the firefighters.

In the last few decades, the forested area of Guatemala has shrunk by thousands of hectares.

"The biggest problem are the large farms," says Victor Melina, one of the forest farmers responsible for the area.

Desperate bid to save the rainforest

But there are serious and determined groups that still want to save the rain forests of Guatemala, Mexico and Belize.

International organisations like the Rainforest Alliance and the Forest Stewardship Council, along with other groups have vowed to aid Guatemala in creating a system that reconciles civilisation with the rain forest.

By their plans, only one or two trees should be felled per hectare every 25 years.

Contracts for managing the forest are sometimes issues directly to the communities and cooperatives. Wood harvested from the forests in accordance with conservation guidelines receives a certificate from the Rainforest Alliance and sold on world markets with the eco-friendly label.

Other products from the rain forest include pimentos, raw rubber and palm leaves, commonly used as decorations in floral bouquets in Europe. - Sapa-dpa

- SAPA