NaraNjo-Sa'al - World Monuments Fund

In 2006, a Much-needed boost came from the site’s inclusion on the World Monuments
Watch, which heightened the visibility of the conservation challenges of Naranjo-Sa’al.
Shortly after the World Monuments Fund’s (WMF) listing of the site, support
for its preservation was secured from the Gilbert & Ildiko Butler Foundation, the
United States Department of State Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation, and
from Guatemala’s Ministry of Culture and Sports. Collectively, these funds have been
crucial for the development and implementation of the current project, the scope of
which was outlined during a 2007 site-preservation workshop underwritten by WMF.
Carried out under an over-arching Yaxhá-Nakum-Naranjo National Park Master
Plan (Master Plan 2006–2010), the multidisciplinary Naranjo-Sa’al conservation
project has focused on six important areas, which are outlined below and detailed in
the following pages.
This multifaceted program of activities for Naranjo-Sa’al includes:
1. Complete the digital mapping of the 90-square-kilometer site and documentation
of the condition of the standing architecture and surviving monuments and specific
damage to them—both in the site core and in the surrounding landscape—with all
data entered into a GIS database of the site. Such information is critical for conservation
planning, the establishment of site buffer zones, and for the development of
a proper surveillance system and site-monitoring program to protect Naranjo-Sa’al
in the future. Information gleaned from the documentation of the looters’ tunnels
is clarifying the architectural evolution of this important Maya polity over time.
2. Consolidation of monuments to arrest further decay and to ensure the safety of
site workers and future visitors. This includes the stabilization of looter’s trenches,
consolidation of masonry walls and steps, treatment of surviving stucco and paint
surfaces, select removal and pruning of destabilizing trees growing atop structures,
limited excavation of select architectural elements for the purpose of site presentation,
and the restoration of eight monumental buildings at the site core, which have
been placed on a priority list of structures in urgent need of intervention.
3. Documentation of the site’s exotic flora (and fauna) and the development of a
flora conservation and restoration program. Plants and trees propagated on site,
including a variety of begonias, orchids, and palms, will be used to landscape areas
around the consolidated standing architecture and along soon-to-be developed visitor
pathways between the monuments.
4. Development of an environmental stewardship education program for Naranjo-
Sa’al’s neighboring communities, many of which have historically exploited the
site for cultivation and grazing, for the collection of chicle and xate palm, and for
harvesting timber.
5. Drafting of an interpretation and management plan for the sustainable development
of the site as an ecotourism destination, thereby providing local communities
with revenue alternatives to site-destructive activities.
6. Documentation and conservation of the site’s many surviving sculptural monuments
for future placement in an as-yet-to-be constructed museum in the nearby
town of Melchor de Mencos on the Guatemala-Belize border, ten kilometers away.
In time, high-quality replicas of these monuments are to be placed at the site itself
to evoke the original aesthetic qualities and sense of place.
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