World Bank Document (Excerpts)
In Mexico, nearly 60% of priority areas in the central and southern regions recommended for protection are inhabited by indigenous peoples, and half of the 30,000 indigenous rural communities are located in the 10 most biologically rich states of the Mexican territory.
There is also a clear correspondence in Central America between areas of remaining tropical forests and the presence of indigenous communities. Central American natural richness is evident considering that this small tropical region has 20 life zones ranging from semi-desert to cloud forest, with 8% of the world’s known plant species and 10% of its vertebrates. Paralleling Mexico, Central America is also one of the world’s richer regions in culture and tradition. It is pluri-cultural and multilingual , with more than 50 distinct indigenous groups, making up a total indigenous population of over 6 million people.
Mexico is a privileged country, from a biological as well as a cultural point of view. Its territory is home to a large number of species of plants, animals, fungi, and other organisms as well as to a large number of linguistically distinct cultures. As a result, the country has been ranked 9th amongst nations in terms of bio-cultural wealth, and is considered to be one of the main centers of diversity in the world.
Diversity of environments and wealth of natural resources were decisive factors in making Mexico the birthplace of major early civilizations of Mesoamerica. As a result contemporary rural Mexico is still, after many centuries of social change, an agrarian space dominated by indigenous or Indian-derived peasants, owning half of Mexican territory (103 million hectares), principally forested areas (70% of national total) and agricultural lands (80%).
In addition, 58 main indigenous peoples, with an estimated population of 12 million, and speaking 240 languages and dialects other than Spanish, are living in practically all the main natural habitats of the country from tropical lowlands and temperate mountains to coastlands and desert or semi-desert areas.
biological wealth (biodiversity) is intimately related to the presence of indigenous groups. The region confirms the impossibility of maintaining biological diversity without protecting cultural diversity and vice versa. Based on the evidence found in this study, it is essential to recognize the necessity of empowering indigenous communities and their organizations. This will require that indigenous communities be allowed to maintain, reinforce, or assume control of their own territories and natural resources, as well as have sufficient access to relevant information and technology that will assist both their resource management and conservation and their cultural self-confidence.
It is possible to observe a slow and incipient transition from a preservationist position to a more comprehensive approach: "conservation with development", or "community managed protected areas", or "community reserves", or "conservation with development and identity". The various political and economic interests of the stakeholders do not converge necessarily towards satisfactory resolutions that harmonize and strengthen the goal of conservation and development with identity.
Compared with those responsible for protected areas, which control something like six percent of the earth, indigenous peoples inhabit nearly twenty percent of the planet, mainly in areas where they have lived for millennia. 8
Central America is also rich in culture and tradition. The region is pluricultural and multilingual, with 14 distinct indigenous ethnic groups speaking 39 languages, totaling about 6.7 million people (24 percent of the total population of the region). Guatemala has the largest concentration of indigenous peoples (66 percent), mainly of Mayan descent, followed by Belize (20 percent), and Honduras (15 percent) (ILO).
Outside of Guatemala, indigenous peoples are concentrated in areas that are less populated, including the areas that still have intact natural forests and ecosystems; about 85 percent of the region’s national protected areas overlap with indigenous populations.
Indigenous peoples in Central America currently occupy an estimated 170,000 square kilometers, or about 33 percent of the area of the seven countries. More than 50 percent of this land contains forests or natural ecosystems, and a similar amount corresponds with the MBC. Likewise, a disproportionate share of forests and natural ecosystems, and an even greater share of national protected areas, overlap with indigenous populations.
The strong overlap between indigenous peoples and natural resources is not coincidental. The ecosystems of many areas of high biodiversity have been shaped by human management practices related to subsistence agriculture, home gardens, forest extraction, hunting or gathering practices, and the use of forests as a refuge from mainstream society and as sacred sites. Although social research has not developed an agreed understanding of the complex population–nature relationships, it is known that under certain circumstances greater population density fosters biological diversity rather than destroying it. This is the case, for example, in parts of Sri Lanka, the Caribbean islands, and the Indo-Burma region.
Some interdisciplinary approaches suggest that traditional community governance mechanisms may help develop sustainable systems. Even in parts of Central America with supposedly “assimilated” Mayan populations, a study of municipal forest management comparing communities in historically Mayan and non-Mayan areas of western Honduras document significantly better managed forests in Mayan areas (Tucker, 1999)
