For generations, my people, the Maya Ch’orti’ people, have lived on our territory in Guatemala. But a few years ago, the madness of biofuels landed in our country. Companies began to monopolize water resources and displaced our local communities from our lands and territories with the aim of expanding monocultures of pinyon , a crop used for the production of ethanol, a biodiesel in high demand by European markets.
Biodiesel is not the easy climate solution that politicians and corporations present. Nobel laureate in chemistry Paul Crutzen has shown that growing and burning large amounts of biofuel increases greenhouse gas emissions. For every liter of biodiesel, 20,000 liters of water are used. It is a serious threat to our food supply and to our livelihood as farmers.
As the municipalities refuse to register the land in the name of the indigenous communities, the Ch’orti’ women took action. We put our ancestral knowledge of water conservation and protection into practice, and take legal action to be granted proper land rights and to ensure our access to water sources.
We advocate for the application of a reforestation policy in communal areas and we take action before the courts of justice to legitimize our rights and hold the perpetrators of environmental damage accountable. We built reservoirs to store water that have allowed us to diversify our crops and plant native species that are less vulnerable to droughts caused by climate change.
Biodiesel is proclaimed as a climate-responsible alternative to fossil fuels, but its production only aggravates the ecological crisis in our territories. We ask governments and investors to divert resources from biodiesel production. You are contributing to the climate crisis and violating indigenous rights. We ask that the funds be used for the real gender-just climate solutions that we, the women and girls of the Maya Ch’orti’ people, are applying. The Maya Ch’orti’ indigenous women’s network and COMUNDICH have the support of the Tierra Viva Fund , which is part of the GAGGA network. You can follow COMUNDICH’s work here .