Local Partner: SATIIM- Sarstoon Temash Institute for Indigenous Management (SATIIM)
Mayan Farmers will be trained in agroecological methods to improve soil nutrients and reduce deforestation. These peer educators will lead community exchanges in climate change resilience. Mayan women will collect stories and recipes about food from the forest. This information will be included in a calendar that highlighting their contribution to food sovereignty and traditional knowledge of sustainable native food species. The calendar will be distributed throughout the region and inform a trilingual (English, Mopan, and Q’eqchi Maya) exhibition on the project at the Sarstoon Temash National Park Visitor Center.
This project seeks to train indigenous peoples in agroecological methods and collect stories on food sovereignty and traditional knowledge of sustainable native food species. Given the circumstances – on the one hand, the Belize government’s inaction on the court order to legalize Mayan lands, and on the other, its insistence to drill for oil on our lands, communities have the utmost commitment to this project’s success.
Local partner:
The Sarstoon Temash Institute for Indigenous Management is an NGO created and led by Maya and Garifuna communities in the southern-most district of Toledo, the region with the highest indigenous and traditional population in Belize, to serve as their liaison with the external world. SATIIM’s board is composed of representatives from the five communities affected by the government’s 1994 imposition of a protected area, the Sarstoon Temash National Park, onto their traditional lands. Every two years these communities decide SATIIM’s general work plan in a General Assembly. This project is the result of a direct request for assistance for strategies on sustainable development, food sovereignty and security, and customary land governance.
SATIIM created the first indigenous co-management agreement for a protected area in Belize. The plan recognizes the importance of traditional knowledge and practices for this fragile ecosystem. SATIIM quickly organized an indigenous-led biodiversity assessment that resulted in the park’s recognition as a wetlands of international importance under the Ramsar Convention.
