Malena loves candy. And travel. And both together. And thus, this site was born.
by 
A few entries back, I wrote about making chocolate at the Maya Mountain Research Farm, an organic agro-forestry demonstration farm. I left a lot of it out. I didn’t write about how green and fertile everything seemed, about seeing the decades-old hardwood trees flourishing alongside of recently planted pineapple bushes and coconut trees. How it had taken Chris and Dawn years of work to reclaim the land back from the unfertile pasture. I didn’t write about the way Chris looked when he talked about his neighbors practicing slash and burn agriculture, the worry on his face, or the danger of fires getting out of control and spreading, as happens every year. I didn’t talk about the ever-present smell of ash in southern Belize and eastern Guatemala, as farmers cleared their crops before the rainy season. I didn’t talk about the distant puffs of dark foreboding smoke visible from my bedroom at the farm.
The Farm Before the Fire
“As I write, ashes fall on my keyboard, and fire smolders east, north and west of me…
MMRF has 70 acres. We guesstimate that right now 50 of them have burnt. A spring on MMRF land supplied our drinking water - we were able to save the pump and the solar panel that powered it in time, but 600 feet of the pipe between there and the main structures were destroyed, so we have no running water. Hundreds of young samwood, cedar and other timber trees have burnt. The ruins of Uxbentun, on this land, have burnt; my best bearing criollo cacao trees are dead; the 2 acre pasture is entirely black. While fire came within 5 feet of our staff housing, the classroom, 2 dorms and the wood-working shop, we are very grateful that no damage has yet occurred to any structures. Yesterday I evacuated my children across the river when fire threatened our house.”
Harvesting Cacao, Before the Fire
“Is the next step to research, implement, monitor and report on appropriate reforestation for fire devastated ecosystems?
What legal recourse do we have, what department handles this?
Do you know of successful (local or documented) examples of eco-system restoration subsequent to fire?
What about the many other farmers that this happens to every year here in Toledo? What can we as a community in support of environmentalism and sustainable development, come together and do to halt further destruction?“
If anyone can help answer any of these questions, please let me know! Also, keep the family in your thoughts/prayers/etc, as I imagine it’s a difficult time.
posting from United StatesMay 25th, 2008 8:41 pm
Wow, Malena.
Your friends will certainly be in our thoughts and prayers. I will forward this story to a friend who holds similar concerns for sustainable development. Perhaps she will know of some resources (or someone else who can point the way).
Take care, and thanks for the postcard! (Even if it did carry the remains of a malaria-infested bug)
Kurt
posting from United StatesMay 26th, 2008 6:56 pm
Hi Malena:
Somewhere in the back of my mind I have heard that while crop burning takes away many nutrients from the soil, it eventually, if one can wait long enough, enriches it. I don’t really know.
As a little girl in Mexico, the burning smell on the countryside was not considered in a negative sense, but land clearing or renewing has come a long way from that time. I am very sorry for the Maya Mountain Research Farm’s fire losses and , with my little contact with the Penn State Agricultural representative here in Somerset, I will try to find out more on eco system restoration due to a fire.
Spring has finally come and the days are finally warmer.
Hope you continue to be well and that you continue discovering what makes this life and this world we share so very interesting.
Love from Ab.
posting from El Salvador posting from United StatesJuly 2nd, 2008 2:08 pm
Thanks for the thoughtful posts about Belize and beyond. I plan on visiting southern Belize next week, including MMRF and Cotton Tree Lodge, where they also make chocolate. I can give you an update if you like about the fire damage, or just keep an eye on my blog. Cheers, JB
posting from United StatesJuly 23rd, 2008 1:50 pm
You might check out the work of the Alternatives to Slash and Burn project of the CGIAR
posting from United StatesJuly 30th, 2008 9:13 am
Nancy and Josh,
Thanks for the comments! Josh - I’ll definitely check your blog! Nancy - thanks for the link to Slash and Burn alternatives.
May 25th, 2008 12:05 pm
Malena, your friends are in my thoughts, particularly as they struggle through this most difficult of times. Unfortunately for them and us, I don’t know if anything can be done to keep those who have little enough from trying to get more by using the techniques that have served them and their ancestors for generations.
If we could find out who the agroforestry company is that the fellow worked for, perhaps we could move them to take action, no matter how small.
But remember that what you will experience on this journey is going to be filled with things you can do little about. Farmers in Central and South America burn tens of thousands of acres daily. Europe is wracked with issues of hopelessness and problems with absorbing millions of migrants from other cultures, and the issues in the Middle East have been written about for generations.
All you can do is all you can do, and sometimes just observing and reporting it is enough. What you are doing, telling us of the joy and tragedy of other lands and places, is what you set out to do.
We love you and hold you and your friends in our thoughts as we once held you in our arms.
Mom and Dad