Seeking to create new foundations for life, the Maya people of Belize continue to create economies that allow their ways of living to persist and strive within a globalized world. The Maya people have relied on their surrounding natural resources to ensure their socio-economic and cultural well-being. One natural resource that has been vital for the Maya people is the jipijapa palm. Although the jipijapa palm is commonly used as a food source, men’s and women’s interaction with it differs. Men utilize the palm for farm work, whereas women have commodified it to create crafts to sell on the tourism market. Although jipijapa always had cultural value, the advent of tourism gave it monetary value, causing a transition in how Maya people related to the plant.
Tourism, the COVID-19 pandemic, and climate change are significant globalized changes that impacted the Maya’s relationship with the jipijapa palm. Partaking in the tourism industry led to the overconsumption of jipijapa palms and scarcity in some villages, pressuring the remaining source in San Jose, Belize. The pandemic stagnated the jipijapa craft production, revealing its fragility and hyper-dependency on the local tourism industry. Due to climate change, this year, the Toledo District experienced intense wildfires that burnt for weeks, destroying numerous farms and acres of jipijapa palms.
Learning from the year’s perils, the Maya People of San Jose Village seek to build a more resilient future. They aspired to engage in the international exportation of their crafts, alleviating the dependency on local tourism markets. They also aim to restore burnt farms, replant jipijapa palms, and adopt sustainable farming techniques such as agroforestry to protect their farmlands and the broader environment, ensuring the longevity of their natural resource in a constantly shifting world.
