Panels & Furniture Asia March/April 2023

ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT
The guides take the crew to visit an area
known as quadrant D in Uaxactún, one
of the nine forest concessions, where
trees were harvested in 2014 and the
area is now regenerating. According
to community members, an average
of around 1.5 trees is extracted per
hectare every year in areas where there
are between 200-300 timber trees. The
targeted areas have cutting cycles of
30-40 years. This means that another
tree will not be extracted from quadrant D
until 2054.
Rubén Hernández, president of the
Management and Conservation Civil
Society in Uaxactún which safeguards
83,558 hectares, said: “The best trees
always stay in the forest.”
He explained that there are some
trees called ‘parent trees’ or seedbeds,
which are healthy trees identified for
protection. How does the community
recognise them? They said due to their
lushness and sturdiness, they have a
well-distributed crown, their trunks are
cylindrical, the roots are blight-free, and
they are not tilted, standing straight and
tall. They spread life, and their seeds can
travel up to 65m.
Aside from protected parent trees,
Hernández said that in Uaxactún,
around 11 species are extracted,
following FSC standards. It is important
that sustainable felling is not permitted
in all forest areas. In fact, trees can
only be extracted for wood in around
45% of the approved areas; the rest is
used for conservation or harvesting
non-timber forests products, like
xate, an ornamental leaf exported
to international markets for floral
arrangements.
CONSERVATIONIST MINDSET
Each community and its members have
a strong connection to their forest.
The hands of Jorge Soza, founding
member of community Forestry Services
Company (Forescom) and community
technician of the Association of Forest
Communities of Petén (Acofop), are
worn, aged from the force of the
machete and handling trees that have
sustained him and his family for 53
years. “All my life, I have lived from the
resources of the forest,” he said, sitting
on a table made of machinche — a type
of wood — while holding an aromatic
pepper seed in his palm.
“Culture is vital for community
development,” he asserted while
stressing the importance of passing
down knowledge and values to
future generations. He learned forest
management by example from his
parents, whom he remembers as
guardians of natural resources.
Later that day, Carlos Crasborn,
president of the Carmelita Cooperative,
a community founded 100 years ago
with 53,797 hectares of FSC-certified
forest in the heart of the MBR, shared
Soza’s reflections: “People were born,
grew up in the forest, and are now
living in it. We have always had a
conservationist vision.”
“The forest can be sustainably
managed,” assured Carlos Maldonado,
forestry commissioner of Árbol Verde
Civil Society. “Management is geared
towards thinking about our children
and grandchildren. We must make
sure that our work does not harm the
forest. FSC certification is a source of
pride and an unmistakable sign of good
environmental management of hectares
of land entrusted by the government.”
XATE AND WOMEN EMPOWERMENT
Cutting xate is another activity that
generates permanent resources for the
communities and has become crucial in
recent years.
This leaf, FSC-certified, is used all year
round, and has cutting cycles of around
three months. Xate goes through a
detailed and elaborate process divided
into five steps: selection, cutting,
quality control, packing, and tying up.
Approximately 80% of the men in the
community are involved in cutting
xate, and dozens of women oversee
other logistical processes before its
exportation, mostly to the US.
Legend
1 Women in the
MBR are active in
harvesting xate
2 Jorge Soza,
founding member
of community
Forescom, has
been conserving
the MBR for 53
years
1 2
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