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Presentation short abstract

I discuss factors affecting relational conservation futures in an Indigenous Maya biocultural territory in southern Belize. I suggest the increasing distance between Maya youth and traditional Maya customary practices on the land is a critical component mediating relational conservation futures.

Presentation long abstract

Southern Belize is a contested biocultural assemblage of Q’eqchi’ and Mopan Maya communities, 80% forest cover, and more than 50% coverage of exclusionary protected areas. Biodiversity conservation approaches here have historically excluded Maya communities from protected areas, compensating them with alternative ‘sustainable’ livelihoods connected to commodity markets. However, exclusion has not been easy, and communities continued to practice traditional relationships with forests such as hunting, fishing and collection of construction materials.

In 2015, following a protracted litigation, 41 communities secured legal affirmation of customary communal land tenure. 10 years later the implementation of this decision has yet to be realised. Amidst continued claims that Maya milpa agriculture represents a threat to forests, Maya leaders and activists have emphasised the Indigenous concept of Ral ch’och’ which means the Maya are people of the land; people who live on, depend, work, and care for the land (Baines & Miss, 2024). However, during my dissertation research, I encountered widespread concern that Maya youth were losing this place-based knowledge and their connection with the land. In discussing the factors behind this, community members pointed to increasing demands that education places on youth’s time, as well as increasing engagement in waged labour in urban centres, particularly in tourism and agriculture. I argue that this produces a paradox for conventional conservation in that youth need to be encouraged back onto the land rather than excluded from it, and describe some of the efforts underway to revitalise traditional knowledge systems and reconnect youth with the land.