The cultural context of biodiversity conservation - Oapen

136
The cultural context of biodiversity conservation
biologists working in the surroundings of the National Park resulted in the main focus
being enriched by an ethnoecological approach that had not been envisioned initially.
Although it is not an ethnobotanical survey aimed at the systematic documentation of
local plant classification, the outcomes in this respect were advanced through interdisciplinary
borrowing. In this way, the research results were supplemented by a number
of plant inventories that give an account of the abundance of species used by the
farmers and their families in the communities Roq-há Purib'al and San Benito.
4.4.1 The study sites
The two villages where the joint field research took place were selected based on their
reported time of first settlement. Roq-há Purib'al is one of the oldest in the area,
whereas San Benito was established more recently. Both communities were founded by
landless Q'eqchi' peasants and belong to the municipality of Cobán. Roq-há is located at
the south-western edge of the National Park and covers an area of 736 hectares. First
settlement dates back to 1943, when the first families came from Cubilhuitz and San
Juan Chamelco. Initially they established scattered settlements and considered the lands
to be communal property. At the time of our investigation, the village was composed
of 90 Q'eqchi' families (500 inhabitants) of whom 61 had officially registered land parcels
66, the remaining 29 just owned a lote, which implies a domestic area of 1,600 m 2 .
The families divide their land holdings into plots between which cultivation is commonly
rotated. Unlike the settlement pattern in the highlands, where the village structure
is characterised by widely dispersed houses surrounded by fields, the dwellings in
the lowlands are less scattered. The homesteads are built closer to each other and the
croplands are mostly found within walking distance of the villages. The houses are
clustered around a central place where the school and a building for community assemblies
are to be found. The lands used for rotating swidden farming lie in a broad
band around the village. Although the land holdings were officially distributed, only
69 percent of the villagers had at that time received corresponding titles over their
property. Regarding the communal structure, the villagers have organised themselves
in a development council (consejo de desarrollo) and there is also a so-called women's
committee. The majority of the people are monolingual, however bilingualism is likely
to increase because most children attend the local primary school with an education
scheme that involves teaching in Q'eqchi' and Spanish. Except for an adult education
programme provided by the national literacy commission, all further educational opportunities
are found in the nearby village of Salacuim. The community has a health
post which is visited irregularly by a health promoter. The next medical care station is
also in Salacuim. At the time of our stay, the community still had no electricity, the water
supply for the villagers was ensured by a tank. Above and beyond the relatively
66 The parcela comprises an area of 18 manzanas (a manzana is a unit of square measure equal to 0.7 ha).