From Dissenter to Supporter

Francisco Zepeda has spent his whole life in the forests of Péten. When Carlos Soza Manzanero and his team from ProPéten first approached the villagers of Carmelita with the idea of a partnership, the 52 year-old chiclero (a chicle harvester) was among its vocal opponents. Thirty-seven years of civil war and the increasing "invasions" by migrant farmers had made him mistrustful of outsiders.

"I was very skeptical about what was going to happen," he says, "and I started to see the people of ProPéten working with other people, studying chicle and xate -- it was strange." So Zepeda began his own investigation into what ProPéten was all about.

"What I found out was that [ProPéten] did not want our resources. They really wanted the people to get the benefits [from local resources] but to conserve their forests. This was a huge challenge -- esta era un reto grandisimo."

Zepeda's conversion is now complete -- he was elected President of the Carmelita Comité, which will oversee the management of the community's concession.

Kevin Conway

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