The cultural context of biodiversity conservation - Oapen

The local context
poor condition of education, health and other infrastructure, the village has six
churches, all of them established in the community in recent years. 67
San Benito, the second village chosen for our study, was founded in 1982 and today
covers an area of 19.66 caballerías, of which 15.71 caballerías are divided into parcelas.
68 Another 0.5 caballería forms the village occupied by the dwellings of the community's
inhabitants. The lotes of the farmers in San Benito comprise an area of 1,800 m 2 .
As mentioned elsewhere, the traditional property system has been widely replaced because
of the pressures of privatisation. Not all villagers of San Benito have to date obtained
formal recognition of ownership of their land (65 percent with titles, 35 percent
without). 31 families own lotes and parcelas, 17 only have lotes. 69 Apart from the individually
owned holdings, the community also manages common fields and forested
lands. An area of 3.46 caballerías of primary forest has been left untouched as a sanctuary
area (reserva natural). At the time of our field research, the village had a population
of 288 inhabitants in 48 families. The majority of the villagers are bilingual and of
Catholic confession, whereas just a few families belong to Protestant churches. Originally,
the villagers came from other areas in Alta Verapaz, such as Fray Bartolomé de las
Casas, San Pedro Carchá, Senahú, Telemán and San Miguel Tucurú. In 1978, the first families
came to the area. Their concerted search for arable land led to the establishment in
San Benito. Some of these families had settled in Salacuim, but as there was no more
cultivable land there, many had worked as day-labourers before they learned that plots
of land were being distributed by the land titling agency INTA. 70 At present, water is
provided by a well. San Benito has a primary school provided by the Ministry of Education
with partly bilingual classes. If they want to attend secondary school, children have
to move to the neighbouring village St. Lucía, five kilometres away. The village is visited
from time to time by Cuban doctors who normally provide basic stationary health
care in Santa Lucía, where the Escuela de Biología has also built a biological station. 71
67 Due to the political violence of the civil war, the Catholic Church had disappeared for several
years from parts of the area in the early 1980s. Just recently it has re-established its presence in the
communities. Since the 1960s, Protestant denominations emerged increasingly in Alta Verapaz, although
they were less tolerant regarding the incorporation of traditional beliefs and customs. By the
mid 1990s, these Churches have expanded their membership to almost one fourth of the total
Q'eqchi' population (Siebers 1994: 216). As a result, a plurality of different Churches is to be found
throughout the department. In general, many of the former patrulleros and their families converted to
Protestant churches (Adventista, Nazareno, Príncipe de Paz, Calvario, Carismática) in the 1980s, while the
majority of the people who had sought refuge in the mountains are Catholics.
68 As mentioned, a caballería is another unit of area measurement equivalent to 45 ha (64 manzanas).
In San Benito, the individually owned parcelas comprise an area of 31 manzanas per family.
69 To obtain their final land titles, the farmers pay annual instalments of 1250 Quetzales over a period
of 9 years (in March 2003, the official rate of exchange was 1 US$ = 7.6 Quetzales).
70 An outcome of this process of land distribution was the official founding of San Benito in two
parts: San Benito I and San Benito II. Although the former has been chosen for the study purpose, for
sake of simplicity the community is referred to as San Benito.
71 The health post is manned by two doctors who provide medical service for around 19,000 people
living in the area. A midwife who lives in the community and two traditional healers (curanderos) also
provide medical care. »First we go to the curandero, and if the treatment does not help, we go to see the doctors«,
an informant from San Benito explained. Like the doctors, the curanderos treat physical diseases, but
the people would foremost go to see them if they suffer from spiritual diseases such as susto, ojeado or
137