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Letter From Guatemala
WHERE ECOTOURISM MAY SAVE A JUNGLE
JANE TANNER
11/16/1998
Business Week
38J
(Copyright 1998 McGraw-Hill, Inc.)!
Pigs amble along steep streets in San Andres, on the edge of Central America's largest remaining
tropical forest, the Maya Biosphere Reserve. In sweltering heat, the animals collapse in doorways
or burrow into ditches. Small girls walk past them, toting bowls of corn kernels to be mashed into
dough for tortillas. Women wade waist-deep in Lake Itza Peten to rub clothing clean on
submerged rocks. But signs of modern development are intruding on this rustic scene: Water
pipes are being installed. Cable TV blares out. A few modern appliances, such as washing
machines and VCRs, are visible. !
Money for the conveniences comes from foreign visitors, who began arriving in 1993, when
Conservation International opened its Spanish-language school, Eco-Escuela de Espanol. For
the 5,000 villagers, the school is an economic boon. But Conservation International, a private,
nonprofit organization based in Washington, has another goal in luring tourists to study Spanish
and regional ecology: It hopes to safeguard the nationally protected forest that encompasses
much of northern Guatemala.!
Eco-Escuela is part of a trend: installing environmentally benign businesses in sensitive areas to
reduce reliance on destructive practices. ``Eco- tourism is one of the best ways to get wealthy
people to travel thousands of miles to remote corners of the earth and hand over lots of money to
poor people,'' says Jeff A. Langholz, a Cornell University doctoral candidate in natural-resource
policy. Already, many families have moved into school-related jobs. Some have given up farming
altogether. !
For generations, men here sliced chicle-tree bark to draw resin used in chewing gum. (That's how
Chiclets got their name.) Later, they turned to logging. Many felled trees to carve out milpas, or
farms, to grow corn and beans. Even more trees have been sacrificed for firewood. In 1970, most
of the region was forested, but already more than half the land has been converted to crops and
pastures. At that rate, the forest could be gone by 2025. !
When Conservation International and its northern Guatemalan office, ProPeten, opened the
school, locals could not believe foreigners would travel to their community to learn Spanish--or
pay $50 a week to eat and sleep in crowded family quarters. BULK BEDDING. Now, they're used
to the foreigners who gather in a meeting hall to sit at tiny tables for four hours a day of Spanish
instruction. The school attracted 68 students the first year--and 500 this year. Twenty teachers, all
villagers, make about $40 a week, while 32 families take in $1,800 a year by providing room and
board. !
The school is spawning auxiliary businesses. Telma Mendez, who has one of only three phones
in town, charges foreigners about $1 to make credit-card calls. At night, she converts her
courtyard into a cantina where locals and students drink beer. Some women take in laundry. A
widow buys bulk quantities of bedding to sell to host families. Others sell purified water and fruit.
There's a demand for tour guides and motorized canoes, too. !
Conservation International is helping to establish other businesses in the region, including makers
of potpourri, spice, and cosmetic oils that use nonendangered jungle plants. These enterprises

2. could make it more profitable for villagers to leave the trees standing so they can protect the
valuable plants. !
In 1996, Eco-Escuela, which had generated a profit of almost $30,000 in its latest fiscal year, was
turned over to locals. Now, it's run by a cooperative owned by teachers, host families, and four
administrators who divide the profits. Last summer, each got about $450. !
Larger forces such as cattle ranches and oil exploration threaten to overpower such efforts.
Undeterred, environmentalists are establishing schools elsewhere. This fall, neighboring San
Jose opened a school that emphasizes the Maya culture. ``It's not one single school that's going
to do it,'' says Greta A. Ryan, ecotourism development program coordinator. But together with the
new businesses that have sprung up, she says, the schools may help stop destruction of a
natural treasure.!
Photograph: `HABLO ESPANOL' Language study at Eco-Escuela gives villagers a new way to
earn their living PHOTOGRAPH BY M. SISTER Illustration: Map: GUATEMALA MAP BY JEAN
WISENBAUGH !