The cultural context of biodiversity conservation - Oapen

The local context
the area known as the Franja Transversal del Norte, one of the main areas of confrontation
during the civil war, from which many indigenous communities were displaced
and where large estates were established, owned by former members of the armed
forces. This disparity reinforced the socio-economic polarisation of society.
Another issue of crucial concern is the position of indigenous peoples in respect
to access to justice. To date, despite the signing of the peace accords, the juridical system,
largely ineffective, is unable and in some cases unwilling to enforce citizens'
rights. As Green (2003: 62) mentions, impunity is crucial to the ways in which power
is exercised in the country today. It is fear and silence, not justice that circumscribes
the lives of large parts of the rural population. In his report on the situation of the human
rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people in Guatemala, Stavenhagen (2003)
makes clear reference to this issue. While the government has taken various steps to
broaden the administrative system of justice throughout the country, the coverage remains
inadequate. As Stavenhagen notes, the indigenous peoples complain of difficult
access to the courts, discrimination against their customary law and the lack of interpreters
of indigenous languages in the courts. He attaches special importance to the
recognition of legal systems specific to the indigenous peoples themselves and recommends
that the government and civil society as a whole promote a major national
public campaign for the respect of cultural diversity. This endeavour should embrace
in particular the field of education, which has been reported to be an issue of priority
concern for the indigenous peoples. Despite the government's efforts to provide bilingual
education, there are as yet insufficient trained teachers, just as other educational
resources are inadequate. Thus, levels of school attendance, particularly in rural
areas, remain low, which is a disturbing state of affairs that perpetuates exclusion and
discrimination. Stavenhagen asserts that there is still no overall system of intercultural
education set out in the curricula adapted to the languages and the needs, values and
systems of the indigenous peoples themselves and reaching schools in remote localities.
Although public investment in education has grown in the years following the
signing of the peace agreements, the figures for education in predominantly indigenous
areas show large lags compared with regions with non-indigenous population. 18
According to Flores Arenales (1999: 16) the process of reconciliation that was initiated
in the mid-1990s could not resolve the long term social paralysis and silence.
Due to the repressive policies of the militarised state and its intelligence network, trust
– seen by the author as an essential value in intimate relations – was one of the major
casualties of the political violence. Although peace has been achieved, Guatemala remains
a profoundly unequal and divided society. Adams, referring to »a population of
divided identities«, writes that fear has always been part of the psychodynamics of the
relationship between the ladino and the indigenous population. Its historic genesis lies
18 Historically, the linguistic diversity of the country has not been considered in the design and implementation
of education policies. The nation's expenditure on education belongs to the lowest in
Latin America, leading to the second highest rate of illiteracy of 31.9 percent (Green 2003: 68). In
particular, the indicators of access to education by the indigenous, rural and female population are
extremely poor. For further details on educational issues, see Gleich (1997) and Heckt (2000).
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