A Commitment Far Bigger Than Us
Our community partners face challenges, and are therefore building solutions, that are much more complex than tidy annual metrics.
But we know there is no one more invested in those solutions than they are.
One of those communities is El Asintal, an Indigenous community of 110 families who returned home with scarce resources after the Guatemalan civil war. They’ve since worked tirelessly to build livelihoods while also protecting the vulnerable forest landscapes they steward.
From negotiating their agrarian debt to mapping and securing their territory boundaries, they’ve been through many long processes needed to secure their land rights and livelihoods. All of these processes have required long-term accompaniment and donors who empower communities to lead with their own priorities.
Most recently, with the support of our local partner, Utz Che’, the community of el Asintal has started a biological monitoring program in their communal forest. The program uses 9 camera traps, spread throughout the forest, to monitor the presence of a diversity of mammals, birds, and other species. Though Utz Che’ provided initial training in use of camera traps and GPS devices, twelve community members, primarily youth, are leading the program. By monitoring local biodiversity, these young people are not only playing an active role in the management of their ancestral forest, but also building a strong case for the community’s continued forest management rights.
Last year we had the privilege of visiting El Astinal and seeing first-hand their camera traps – there’s a small detail from that visit I’ll never forget. Though the camera traps initially came with disposable batteries, the community opted to replace them with rechargeables. Doing so required them to visit camera trap sites, often a strenuous hike through the forest, more than twice as often as they would have to with disposable batteries.
When asked why, they simply said they didn’t want to harm the environment.
This may seem like a small decision, but it reflects the profound commitment this community holds towards the land, even in the little ways, even far beyond their own territories.
And this commitment is one of the many reasons we don’t need them to justify their work to us year after year, number after number.
They’ve already invested more than we ever could in the outcomes we are all working towards.
