Photo: Santa Elena resident signs first official Village Delimitation Map
SATIIM’s Executive Director, Maya Choc, has called on the Julian Cho Society and Toledo Alcalde Association to give an account of how US $1.86 million granted by Tenure Facility to assist the Maya Land Rights struggle was spent
by Marco Lopez
BELMOPAN, Tues. Apr. 4, 2023
The first Village Delimitation Map (VDM) under the Delimitation: Principles and Methodology (DPM) agreed upon by the Government of Belize and the Mayan people was officially created in Santa Elena Village just about five days ago. The government is to conduct a technical verification of the VDM as outlined in the DPM. This significant milestone was made possible in part through funding provided by a grant organization for indigenous peoples and communities, known as Tenure Facility. They granted the Julian Cho Society, the Maya Leaders Alliance, the Toledo Alcaldes Association, the Toledo Maya Land Rights Commission, and the University of Colorado Law, US $1,860,000 in 2020. Maya Choc, the Executive Director of the Sarstoon Temash Institute for Indigenous Management (SATIIM), is now calling for a full account of those funds, which were to be used within the 41 Maya villages.
A release from SATIIM notes that they have not been informed of, nor have they received, any of the funds. We note, however, that that organization (SATIIM) was not one of the proponents which were granted the facility under the project: “Securing and protecting tenure rights of the Maya People of Southern Belize” that was approved for the JCS/MLA and TAA. The project is still ongoing, according to Tenure Facility’s website, which outlines goals of “demarcating and titling the estimated 1 million acres of Maya land and forest collectively owned by 41 communities in southern Belize,” among others.
Choc asserts that only one (1) of those communities has been fully demarcated since the start of the project, which, according to the grantor’s website, was to end on March 31, 2023. Choc, in an interview this week, said, “It is based on their methodology – it’s a cause of concern for us because, based on how we’ve seen it working right now, there is a reason why they have only been able to completely map one community; and this is why we ask about accountability — it’s not just about the financial accountability, but it’s important to understand what happened to the project.”
The goals of the project were also to “develop legislation to guarantee Maya property and associated rights, and build the capacity between the Maya people and GoB to ensure proper implementation of objectives.” A release issued by MLA/TAA and JCS outlines that the grantee, TAA and JCS, have secured “another multi-year extension to continue to support the 2015 Consent Order” through a partnership with Tenure Facility. They stated that this was approved after a “full institutional and financial audit of the three-year project.”
Their release states that the three-year project involved developing a methodology for the delimiting of the boundaries, developing legislation for the protection of Maya rights, and conducting capacity-building within communities.
“In particular, TAA/JCS supported the community consent process with over 5,000 people (and), together with village leaders, elders, and expert knowledge holders, deployed the Maya Boundary Harmonization process with 25 communities. This resulted in multiple inter-boundary agreements in accordance with the agreed-upon process between the Government of Belize and Maya parties—the Delimitation: Principles and Methodology,” the release states.
The release further notes that the project enabled legal representation for several communities, including Jalacte, San Miguel, Santa Cruz, and others. Readers will recall a $6.3 million dollar award granted to the village of Jalacte and two individual claimants in a case against GoB after a road was built by government through the villagers’ property.
An inventory of third-party interests that could affect Maya land was also created under this project through collaboration between the Toledo Maya Land Rights Commission and GoB’s Land Survey Department, the release states.
“The work we do, we do together. In all activities, the TAA/JCS regularly reports back to our respective villages. Updates, reports, and feedback are shared and debated at the TAA assemblies, which have consistently included the leaders of all 41 Maya villages. For us, a people united will never be defeated,” their release states.
According to the Tenure Facility website, this project “seeks to secure and define land rights and legal structures for the 41 Maya communities in high-biodiversity forest in the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor.” It is divided into three components, with an end goal to “strengthen the traditional governance system of the Q’eqchi’ and Mopan, helping them adapt to a constantly changing natural and economic environment, maintaining the strength of rural communities.”