Organization: Sarstoon Temash Institute for Indigenous Management (SATIIM)
Country: Belize, South America
Peoples: Maya, Garifuna
Do your worst, and we will do our best – that Churchillian formulation may be said to sum up relations between the government of Belize and the Sarstoon Temash Institute for Indigenous Management. For as the government undermines its own courts, its own constitution, in order to continue dispossessing Indigenous Peoples of their land for development purposes, SATIIM continues to honor its agreement with the government to co-manage Sarstoon Temash National Park. As part of its work, SATIIM is educating a new generation of community leaders and park managers – a generation that will appreciate the productive alliance between conventional science and traditional ecological knowledge. In the fullness of time, the alliance will provide livelihoods while protecting irreplaceable sacred sites and the national treasure of the natural environment in Belize. Until then, organic cacao plantings are reducing the pressure on the park’s resources.
