This day in December is a customary holiday celebrating the Mexican Virgin of Guadalupe, so later Yam Pérez will don indigenous Maya dress to join in feasting, song and dance with her family and 250 others in the community of Felipe Carrillo Puerto.
Before that, she was busy making breakfast for a group visiting the community’s eco-tourism centre of Sijil Noh Ha, set deep in the tropical forest of Mexico’s southeastern Yucatan Peninsula, some 200 km (124 miles) southwest of the coastal resort city of Cancún.
The venture, an outgrowth of the community’s forestry enterprise, discreetly showcases time-honoured native wisdom that protects biodiversity and helps build resilience to climate change – a hot topic at talks on the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) held this month in Cancún.
Indigenous and community forestry is key to slowing species extinction and global warming, so governments must do more to guarantee the land rights of forest peoples, as well as their participation in decision-making, experts told the CBD’s 13th major conference.
This is an excerpt from an article originally published on the Daily Mail.
