Guatemala's palm industry leaves locals contemplating an uncertain future

Myles Estey in the povermatters blog at Guardian (UK): ...A dozen dirt-floored homes dot Semochán, in the northern Guatemalan state of Petén. The predominantly indigenous Q'eqchi residents harvest maize and beans from small plots of family-owned land. But over the past decade, the semi-tropical climate and flat terrain has attracted the interest of palm growers. Hoping to cash in on the growing global demand for palm oil (used mainly in commercial baked goods), they have reportedly bought more than 20,000 hectares of arable land in the region.

"They have encircled us and we no longer have the right to cross our community," says Sandra*, who – since former neighbours sold the plots between her own and the town itself – must cross an oil palm plantation in order to reach the land she legally owns. An agreement has been reached to allow her access, but she fears the plantation workers, far from honouring it, will continue to intimidate both her and other women in the community with threats of eviction.

"They came on my parcel, and they asked me: 'Are you going to sell your land?' I told them I wouldn't," she said of her latest conversation. "They told me that, someday, I would find myself not enjoying my land any more, no matter what. That is how things were left." Residents in several nearby villages are uneasy about the future of their land, with many worried that the environmental side-effects associated with the palm plantations will render it worthless.

Santos Natalio Chic, an investigator with the national commission on displaced people in Guatemala, believes that – beyond the intimidation – company representatives have intentionally misled residents, whether by claiming that floods will render their land useless or offering spurious guarantees of lifelong employment. "You never see their promises," says Chic. "They say: 'This will bring development to the communities,' when really what it means is more poverty."...

Patchwork of cultivated fields on mountain slope in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. Shot by the pink slip, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license