From Grassroots to Highland Forests

There are many alluring things about the Guatemala Cuchumatan highlands. At 3000m above sea level there are dramatic mountain views, and incredible hiking, but for me it was the chance to visit the Mam Mayan town of Todos Santos. It's a place where the few travelers that make the upwards trek in an uncertain chicken bus can stay with a Mam family, learn how to weave, make tortillas, and trade in their daily showers for a weekly bath in a traditional Mayan chuj (1). Visiting Todos Santos also provided a chance to learn from a community that was once the site of massacres during Guatemala's brutal civil war, and see first hand both the lingering effects of violence and fear, and also the strength and resilience of the Mam Mayan people.


While walking around the village I was glad to be one of only a handful of tourists, and surrounded by Mayan tradition. Todos Santos is the only village in Guatemala where men join the women in wearing brightly coloured hand woven clothing, and around me each man and boy was dressed the same in a traditional outfit of red stripped pants, shirt, and hat. I was enjoying savoring the culture shock of this new place where people lived entirely differently than what I'd ever seen, when to my surprise I noticed something strangely familiar in the context of everything different. It was a small building with the Canadian flag on it. Clearly, Canadians had not only been here before but had set up shop, and I wasn't the trailblazer I had been thinking I was. After some investigating I found out the building was part of a reforestation project supported by the Canadian non-governmental organization Cause Canada (2). Thinking back to my own tree-planting days in Northern Ontario, I was curious to find out more and got directions to a small tree nursery further down the road.



Here I was greeted by Pedro and Louis working among rows of seedlings, a couple of sprinklers, and plastic sheets full of seeds drying in the sun. Pleased to have a visitor so interested in their work, Pedro and Louis proudly showed me around the nursery. They answered my many questions and explained how the reforestation project focused on planting native species of trees using organic methods of agriculture rather than chemicals. Although my curiosity had been satisfied for the moment, there was much more I wanted to learn, so I happily agreed when Louis asked if I would like to come back the next day and harvest seeds with him. My February visit to Todos Santos coincided with the dry season, the time to harvest the seeds from Eucalyptus and Aliso (a type of Alder) trees. Red and White Pine seeds had been harvested a few months earlier, and by the rainy season in June, the seeds carefully nurtured into small seedlings would be ready for planting.














The next day as Louis and I climbed higher along the steep ridge rising up over the village, I struggled to keep up with him. The trees became more dense, and I couldn't help but ask if we could stop so I could catch my breath, and take in the view of Todos Santos now far below us. Louis pointed out the best trees to harvest seeds from. His eyes could easily pick out the healthiest trees, and the ones with seed pockets that were full and ready to be harvested. Louis and I took turns pulling branches within reach and holding them down while the other pulled the seeds off. Both tasks taking all my strength, and resulting in scratched and torn fingers, raw and grazed (not unlike my tree planting hands from years earlier).





Finally with a suitable harvest for an afternoons work, we began our decent, and the village came into view again, smoke puffing from small houses down below. It was this very smoke that was the main reason for our hard work, the tree nursery, and reforestation project. As Louis explained wood was being constantly burned in each house for cooking, to heat up the chuj for bathing, as well as being used as building material. Four decades earlier, a community leader named Desidero Pablo, considered by many to be a visionary, realized the importance of reforestation, not only so that trees would be available for wood in the future, but to protect erosion of the steep slopes surrounding the village, which could easily turn into landslides after heavy rain. In 1978 Desidero's work inspired members from the organization Cause Canada, who were visiting Todos Santos, to get involved and help expand his project. Money was needed for supplies, such as sprinklers, tarps, and plastic bags for seedlings, and also to hire people from the village who could take the project on as long-term employment.















Today it is Pedro and Louis who have earned the positions. This involved going to school in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala's second largest city, to learn about species of trees, planting, harvesting, running the nursery, and being responsible for reforesting 300sq km around the village. Not a small job for a crew of two, the only staff the project can afford. Not only are Pedro and Louis tree experts, but they have taken on the role of educating the Todos Santos community, visiting schools to get the message out to the kids "when you cut
1 tree you have to plant 10".

Just as it was in the beginning under Desideros leadership, the nursery continues to be a grassroots community project driven by local people's ideas and initiatives, and this being the key to it's success. The project's primary sponsor is the Guatemalan non-governmental organization IMDI (3), whose Executive Director is none other than Desidero himself now in his seventies and going strong on many community projects to which Cause Canada is still a partner.

My visit to Todos Santos has stayed with me long after the decent from the majesty of the Cuchumatans. Although I did not end up being the trailblazer I had romanticized about I felt proud to have followed in the steps of other travelers who took the time to learn and reflect and give something back.

(1) Chuj - A small, mud brick structure built low to the ground used for bathing. Inside rocks are heated from a wood fire and water is used to create steam like a sauna.

(2) Cause Canada - An International Relief and Development Organization that strives to empower communities and individuals in disadvantaged regions. www.cause.ca

(3) IMDI - The Mam Institute for Integral Development. Recently recognized as the most effective and efficient non-profit development organization in Guatemala.



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