top of page

The Ancient Maya civilization developed and persisted during more than 3000 years managing a large extension of the Mesoamerican tropical forest, extending, at its peak, from Yucatan peninsula, Guatemala, Belize to Honduras. The flourishing of this civilization accounts for great scientific, cultural and technological advances. Tree farming, biodiversity management in orchards, sophisticated irrigation and soil conservation systems, all indicated continuous adaptive forest management in response to population growth and climate changes during 3000 years (Fedick 2010).  The collapse and rapid depopulation of Maya civilization occurred more than 1000 years ago, and these events are the subject of long-standing debates about human-environment dynamics among the Maya and their forest. Did Maya managed or destroyed their forest? Did this human-environment system reach a tipping point? What is the role of climate change (drought) and the interaction with land-stress factors and forest fragmentation? what is the role of social, economical and political drivers? Responses  to  these  questions  have generated dozens  of  influential publications

from multiple disciplines, pointing to an emerging consensus on causes resulting from complex and reinforcing coupled human-environment systems interactions (Turner 2012). The evidence suggesting a rapid recovery of forest cover (80-280 years) and soil stabilization (120-280 years) (Mueller et al. 2010), and the large extant diversity of the Maya forest (1000 years after, considered a biodiversity hotspot) (Ford 2015), give us light on the tropical rain forest resilience and the time frame involved. The elevated proportion of the current flora corresponding to plants used by the Maya people, points to the growing evidence that actual tropical rain forest in high diverse regions are not pristine, but managed forests (Barlow et al. 2012). Overall, understanding the Maya socio-ecosystem history will give us lessons on the factors driving biodiversity and sustainability in the face of current and future climatic changes. 

Participants

...

The human-environment interactions of the Ancient Maya: lessons from the past to future sustainability

Panel Discussion

Dr. Anabel Ford

Coauthor of The Maya Forest Garden: Eight Millennia of Sustainable Cultivation of the Tropical Woodlands, is a distinguished Mesoamerican archaeologist in the field of settlement and environmental studies of the lowland Maya.  Here landmark settlement survey between Tikal and Yaxhá in Guatemala in 1978 challenges the perceptions of rural and urban divides, demonstrating Maya settlements dominate uplands whether near or far from centers.  Living in the Maya forest and relying on resources native to that place, she gained an appreciation for local knowledge and economic value in what must be called a feral garden. Her current focus at El Pilar, a novel tour destination, integrates her growing academic knowledge of the ancient Maya and her investment in the people living in the region today.  Since 1994, Anabel Ford has spearheaded a unique conservation and development program on one cultural and natural resource in two countries: Belize and Guatemala.  The model of the El Pilar Archaeological Reserve for Maya Flora and Fauna promotes inclusive management with government protection, local leadership and community participation, along with academic research input. Anabel Ford brings her extensive field experience and broadly inquisitive mind to address what is popularly called the mysterious Maya.  

Dr. David Lentz

David Lentz is a professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Cincinnati and Executive Director of the UC Center for Field Studies. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and three books. A Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Linnean Society of London and former Fulbright Scholar, he has received grants for his research on Mesoamerican agriculture, the evolution of plant domesticates and the human impact on natural landscapes from the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the National Geographic Society, the Heinz Family Foundation, the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, and other sources. Currently, with the help of several students, he is conducting paleoethnobotanical research on archaeological remains from the Yaxnohcah, Oxtotitlan and San Andrés sites in Mexico, the Tikal site in Guatemala, the Cerén site in El Salvador, the Bird of Paradise site in Belize, Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, the Wynema and Newtown sites in Ohio, the Soulac site in western France and the Nagaur site in India.

Gerald Islebe is a senior researcher at El Colegio de la Frontera Sur Unidad Chetumal, where he and colleagues investigate palaeoecology and palaeoclimatology of the Yucatán Península and southern Mexico. One of the research goals are to understand past vegetation dynamics in relation to past climate changes, and their relationship with regional or global climate forcing. Another main research focus how past environmental change impacted on ancient Maya culture. The interaction of man-climate-biodiversity is crucial to understand past landscape dynamics. The main proxy used to understand palaeoecological change is pollen, but also geochemistry and isotopes are used to obtain a multiproxy approach.  His research groups also works on spatial scale of past effects and its impact on vegetation.  

Dr. Gerald Islebe

Dr. Javier Caballero

Javier Caballero is Professor at the Institute of Biology of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). He studied for his BSc and MSc degrees in Biology at UNAM, and continued with his graduate studies at the University of California at Berkeley where he obtained a MA and a PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology. He received a National Scientific Foundation doctoral dissertation grant to carry out field research, and has been fellow of the Inter-American Foundation. In 1987, the Mexican Government awarded him and his collaborators the “Reconocimiento a la Acción Ambiental” (Acknowledgment for Environmental Action), an award that is given to scientists and citizens who make significant contributions to the conservation and sustainable use of biological resources.

 

His field of interest is Ethnobotany of indigenous peoples of Mexico particularly the study of intercultural patterns in the use and management of plants,  the assesment of the sustainability of the traditional management of non timber forest products, as well as the understanding of the role of cultural and ecological factors in plant domestication. He has conducted research among the Purhepecha, the Mixtec, the Maya and other indigenous groups of Mexico. He has authored 131 publications, including scientific articles and books. He has lectured and participated in training courses in Mexico, Nicaragua, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Kenya and the Philippines. He has been a consultant for the MacArthur Foundation-Mexico and for the World Conservation Union (IUCN). In 1992, he chaired the Organizing Committee of the III International Congress of Ethnobiology that was held in Mexico, and between 1994 and 1996 he served as Secretary of the International Society of Ethnobiology and was member of the Council of the Society for Economic Botany between 2001 and 2004. Since 1986 he has been member of the Steering Committee of the Grupo Etnobotánico Latinoamericano (GELA), a scientific organization affiliated to the Asociación Latinoamericana de Botánica (ALB). He is a founding member of the Asociación Mexicana de Etnobiología and he was the Scientific Secretary of the Mexican Asociation of Botanic Gardens. He has been member of the editorial board of Etnoflora Yucatanense, Etnoecología and Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution.

 

Dr. Caballero served as Director of the Botanic Garden of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México between 2003 and 2016. From that position he leaded a process to orient and coordinate the work of the botanic gardens grouped in the Mexican Association of Botanic Gardens towards the implementation of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) derived from the Biodiversity Convention (CBD).

bottom of page