Missing the Community for the Cadastre

Liza Grandia, University of California-Davis, Associate Professor

Department of Native American Studies D

Q’eqchi’ Maya Communities and the Land Administration Projects I and II in

Guatemala

Petén in relation to Central America & Guatemala

Q’eqchi’ (formerly K’ekchi’) – Guatemala’s second largest Maya group, approximately a million speakers

Petén: state-sponsored colonization 1959-1989,

Oscar Obando 2009

as part of the military-led counter agrarian reform after the 1954 CIA coup of President Arbenz

Deforestation, > 50% forest loss in 30 years of colonization

Led to the 1992 creation of the Maya Biosphere Reserve (1.6 million ha.)

And a broader network of protected areas, leaving 57% of Petén under conservation status and enclosing much of Q’eqchi’ territory

FYDEP cadaster & protected areas established 1990s

Early 1990s: land titling projects across Petén to resolve

- 40,000 pending colonization claims, &- especially in conflicts with protected areas

andCARE (USAID & Austria), KfW, Guatemalan government, IDB, etc....

8

Peace Accords, 1996Many diverse commitments to improve Guatemala’s agrarian situation, including:

1. public financing for land2. cadastral registry --- > creation of the National Cadastral Information Registry (previously UTJ)3. resolution of conflicts4. credit5. productive projects6. infrastructure for rural development7. training8. information systems9. legal reform10. land taxes

• World Bank-funded• Land Administration Projects (LAPs) in

Guatemala • via the national Cadastral Information Registry (RIC, previously UTJ)

• Phase I - Petén (1998-2003, but extended to 2007)• Loan $31 million + $5.7 million in counterpart funds

• No Indigenous Peoples Participation Plan conducted - although 40% of the population is Q’eqchi’ and/or resettled Maya refugees

• Phase II – 8 departments, 42 municipalities (2006-ongoing)

• Loan approved December 2006, $62 million• Cursory survey (half-day workshop) with representatives

from 22 Maya groups

• Phase III and IV - ???

10

From the IPP, half day workshops with indigenous leaders

Grandia 2009

Grandia 2012Zander & Dürr 2011

Hurtado 2009

Ybarra 2011

ProPetén 2009

Garoz and Gauster

Hurtado 2008, 2011

Alfonso-Fradejas et al. 2011

Solano 2009 & 2012Anonymous 2011

Carrera and Carrera, FAO 2012Heath, IEG, 2010

2011: Petén land study team• Directors• Liza Grandia, PhD, Co-PI• Jorge Grunberg, PhD, Co-PI• Bayron Milian, PhD, Field director

• Topical consultants• Laura Hurtado, PhD• Alberto Alonso-Fradejas, MSc.• Julio Penados, Ing. Agr.• Erick Cotom, Ing. Ind.• Romeo Euler, Ing. Agr.

• Operations• ProPetén Foundation - logistics• Yadira Panti, Eliseo Rax, Alfredo Che, community

organizers

• Advisory council• Norman B. Schwartz, PhD, U. of Delaware• Megan Ybarra, PhD, Willamette U.• Marcus Zander, DED • Susana Gauster, CONGCOOP

Financed by: Trust Fund for Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development (Governments of Norway and Finland)

World Bank management•Fernando Galeana•Enrique Pantoja

Research themes & project suppositions• Agrarian structure, legalization rates & land sales:

Cadastral measurement and titling would provide land tenure security & stabilize the agricultural frontier.

• Agroecology: Through access to credit and reforestation incentives, Petén’s new property owners would invest in more sustainable natural resource use.

• Municipal uptake: There would be improved regional land use planning, and progressive taxation to discourage idle land.

• Conflicts: An accurate land survey would help resolve latent & active conflicts.

• Democratization: As part of the Peace Accord implementation, these processes have special consideration for women and indigenous peoples.

• Decentralization: They would also contribute both to decentralization and better coordination among agricultural and land agencies.

• -- > Institutional lessons learned

1. Methodology: Institutional

• Integration of historic & contemporary cadasters

• Sample of the General Property Registry

• Land use change (satellite imagery)

• Data collection from banks and municipalities

•Consultation with grassroots leaders in research design•Community survey (46 villages, 7% contextual sample)•Participatory mapping•Focus groups and interviews

2. Community investigation

El Limón

La Cobanerita

El Mango

Orthophotos of land sales

3. over 2012: vetting results

– Advisory council– Public forums (4) with

government, university, & civil society in both Petén & the capital

– Two government comment periods

– QER (Quality Enhancement Review)

– WB management

23

Grünberg, Grandia & Milian 2012

for policy-makers

for communities, without World Bank support

Grandia 2013 with Fundación ProPetén and ACDIP

24

Outcomes for Q’eqchi’ and other indigenous communities

1) Land grabs 2) Solidification of historic inequities 3) Violation of Peace Accords4) Denial of the option of collective tenure5) Dispossession of sacred sites, and 6) Fraud

24

1. Land sales - 46% of small holders, sold or been forced to sell within 5 years of close-of-

projectforeclosures (credit), cattle, narcos, African palm, etc.but also poor explanation of inheritance

procedures

26

BEFORE (Colonization)Allotments of 22-45 ha. in indigenous regions (in grey) compared with 625 ha.+ for cattle ranchers (in red)

AFTERAverage parcel holdings 40 ha. in Q’eqchi’ regions compared with 70+ ha. elsewhere

(2) Solidified historic inequities

(3) In violation of Peace Accords

3. Denial of collective title to lands

– 4/5ths of Q’eqchi’ communities held and governed their lands according to customary principles when they arrived to Petén, prior to interactions with state land agencies

– but were told by project technicians that they had to survey the land immediately and “the title has to be in someone’s name” and villages councils didn’t have legal standing.

28

Community tenure (not “communal” per se

– Not “communist,” but a collective system of land allocation

– With profound ecological and social logics: protection of elderly and women headed households; and highly productive because land is for those who farm it.

29

A

A A A A A

A A

A

Am

Am

Am

SsS

SA

NTFPs

Soccer field

Village houses

Firewood collection

Mountains

Swamp

Sacred cave

Spring and river

F

FF

F

SsS

SsS

SsS

SsS

SsS

Af

Af

Af

30

Customary managementMix of usufruct, communal, &

private areas

3131

Frontier allotment, FYDEP or INTA

32

Land sales - soon looks like this

33

Even if such community-driven land use planning were not possible....

34

At a minimal level, sacred places should be protected, according to the Peace AccordsCaves,forest groves (e.g. copal incense trees and cacao), cairns,mountain,springs,boulders,church site,etc...

Every Q’eqchi’ village will have one or more sacred, ceremonial

places

35

For historic and geographical reasons, Q’eqchi’ spiritual practices are distinct from the western highlands

Q’eqchi’ ceremonies conducted by egalitarian councils of four elders

Carried out in forested places and village caves

Western highlands:Ceremonies held by ritual specialists (“Maya priests” or day keepers) on open altars or archaeological sites

38

39

Phase II “safeguard” - questionnaire to be carried out by a Spanish-speaking

land engineer

40

Outcomes for Q’eqchi’ and other indigenous communities

1) Land grabs 2) Solidification of historic inequities 3) Violation of Peace Accords4) Denial of the option of collective tenure5) Dispossession of sacred sites, and 6) Fraud

Legalized parcels, 68% to date…. 32% still pending, will have to remeasure!

(private engineer fees)

42

Remedies for Phase I, Petén• Allow indigenous communities to reconstitute their

lands under customary governance or to create by-laws regulating the sale of village lands.

• Provide legal support to communities negotiate and re-acquire access to their sacred sites that were privatized by the LAP I.

• At the very least, give every community a copy of their cadastre at the end of this multimillion dollar process.

Phase II Recommendations• Place a moratorium on all current and future land

administration projects (including rumored Phases III and IV) to allow for time, reflection, and real informed consent among Guatemala’s majority indigenous population about the long term consequences of land titling.

• Conduct a holistic inventory of different types of communal & sacred lands.

• Develop methodological processes that give communities real decision-making processes in land use planning and take advantage of the flexibilities of GPS technology as the start, not the end of integrated agrarian development

8

44

Manipulation

Top down informatio

n“social communication”

Consultation

(theatrical)

Participation,

in exchange for material

incentives

Interactive, continued participatio

n

Self-mobilizatio

n

Continuum of “participation”

APROBASANK

LAP I and II if the Bank were to take seriously its safeguards for the collective rights and processes in the demarcation of land

Comments: •Liza Grandia: emgrandia@ucdavis.eduliza.grandia@gmail.com

46

Customary managementMix of usufruct, communal, &

private areas

47

Even minimal land use planning would be ecologically & socially more sound... and if land is sold, develop community by-laws to give preferential purchase to other villagers

48

for communities, without World Bank support

Grandia 2013 with Fundación ProPetén and ACDIP

49

Even with the checkerboard approach, land owners were to

leave 20% forested

50

Why not combine

those forest reserves

contiguously?

50

51

Cadastral code

Duplicated land survey

Decentralized

Re-centralized

Pending re-measurements

2005 National Cadastre LawMunicipality Total parcels Advanced

Flores 8,546

San José 1,971 1,923

San Benito 7,735

San Andrés 2,761

La Libertad 12,686

San Francisco 4,201 4,186

Santa Ana 5,476 1,200

Dolores 6,320

San Luis 4,065

Sayaxché 12,031

Melchor 3,331

Poptún 7,041

Total 76,173

Figures presented by RIC, April 16, 2012 in Guatemala City

Arable soils for corn cultivation

Municipal land, Melchor de Mencos

Melchor de Mencos

Municipal land, San Andrés

San Benito Ejido

Erick Cotom, 2103

Erick Cotom, 2013

Annual subsistence cropping

Permanent pastures

v.

57

• Proyecto Xeela three-year grant from the Inter-American Foundation ($179,000 over 3 years)

• to the Association of Indigenous and Peasant Communities for the Integrated Development of Petén (ACDIP) - 145 communities

• Disseminate our land study in Petén and elsewhere, in advance of Phase II

• In the building of broader social networks & agrarian campaigns through indigenous identity

• Restitution of sacred sites and communal lands57