The cultural context of biodiversity conservation - Oapen

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The cultural context of biodiversity conservation
Traditionally, each settlement had defined property rights over communal territories
from which members of the community usually took up land for cultivation. The
communities had established their own councils, which regulated the access to land.
In the 19 th century, the colonial government transferred indigenous territories into
private ownership, thereby reducing most peasants to migrant labour status. The displacement
from ancestral lands became a major problem and led to resistance movements
since the purchase of land by the authorities not only involved the terrain itself,
but also included its residents, who were obliged to work on the lands. Virtually all of
the best farmland was seized, mostly by German expatriates who had settled in Alta
Verapaz and established a production system based on fincas, for which they needed
large expanses of land to meet the demands of the growing coffee export industry. 41
Subsequently, the Q'eqchi' were relegated to farming mountain slopes and indentured
into seasonal servitude on plantations. The continued fragmenting into small holdings
due to ongoing land consolidation provoked massive migration movements of whole
families towards the adjacent lowlands and places such as Senahú, Panzós, Lanquín, Cahabón,
to the Petén and southern Belize in search of new land (Carr 2004). 42 Migration
was even intensified as a result of the adverse effects of the violence of the armed
confrontation during the years of war succeeding a military coup in 1954. 43 By the end
of the 1970s, the first steps in a generalised social and political mobilisation had taken
place. In 1978, a number of religious, labour and popular organisations began protesting
the increasing militarisation that was taking place in rural areas of Alta Verapaz. A
key event in mobilising the oppositional movement was the first massacre in Panzós. 44
ing the town. Today, traditional ceremonies are commonly performed next to the church entrance.
The city of Cobán was founded in 1544 on a sacred mountain where a deity called Mon'a venerated by
the local Q'eqchi' was substituted by a big wooden cross (Flores Arenales 1999).
41 A finca is a large landholding devoted mainly to commercial agriculture. It is usually privately
owned and includes a community of permanent land labourers. By 1930, the Verapaz was virtually a
German territorial possession until the coffee empire came to an end with the 2 nd World War. As
part of Guatemala's declaration of war on the side of the Allies, the Germans were expelled and their
properties expropriated (Barreiro 2001). Nevertheless, the land and labour relations formed during
that area have changed little to this date (Wilk 1997: 53). At present, finqueros (landlords) are often
high-ranking members of the military.
42 While many indigenous peoples in Guatemala have tended to migrate toward the larger urban centres
as a result of forced displacement, the Q'eqchi' tended to move onto tierras baldías (empty lands)
to establish new communities in the mountainous, forested and coastal areas of their region, thereby
recreating their customary way of life (Barreiro 2001: 5). This phenomenon has to do with the fact
that the Q'eqchi' were almost the only ethnic group in Guatemala that had a flexible agrarian frontier
at its disposal (Siebers 1994: 233).
43 With exception of an agrarian reform initiated by the government between 1952 and 1954, no regime
had attacked the agrarian roots of cultural discrimination. Between 1950 and 1970, the average
farm seize dropped from 8.1 ha to 5.6 ha. The number of landless peasants increased to about oneforth
of the rural workforce (Davis 1988: 14f.).
44 For several months, Q'eqchi' peasants of Panzós had been soliciting for official land titles. Despite
counterclaims by finqueros, the government had promised to issue the titles. When the peasants came
to the town hall to obtain them they were met by armed soldiers. In the ensuing encounter more
than 100 people were killed (Davis 1988: 17). This event constituted a turning point because the
army's strategy shifted thereupon from low intensity repression towards large-scale violence (Flores
Arenales 1999: 97). Until late 1983, massacres became routine, whereas villages did not have to be