Christmas poachers kill off rare Guatemalan fir
Date: 27-Dec-02
Country: GUATEMALA
Author: Greg Brosnan
Poor street vendors buy the dark green boughs smuggled into markets amid truckloads of vegetables and fashion them into Christmas trees to boost their meager incomes.
The Guatemalan Fir - Abies Guatemalensis - took root during the Ice Age, when firs spread south through the Americas.
While Guatemala's steamy jungles are sub-tropical, mountains and volcanic peaks more than 4,800 feet (3,000 meters) above sea level make parts of the country perfect for firs. This is the southernmost place in the world where they grow naturally, said agronomist Elmer Lopez.
Guatemala's only fir once adorned mountaintops across the country. But since Christmas trees have become fashionable during the last 50 years it has vanished from all but a few isolated pockets that poachers can easily penetrate.
As an emergency measure aimed at saving the species, firs are being imported from Canada. But demand remains as many Guatemalans insist on the home-grown variety that gives off a unique lemon and rosemary scent they associate with Santa Claus and holly.
"I'm embarrassed to admit it," said Lopez, who is an expert on the species and a representative for environmental group Greenpeace. "Even to me that smell means Christmas."
THE TREES ARE PROTECTED BY MAYAS
Over half the world's Guatemalensis Firs grow amid pine trees in a communal forest and natural reserve in the mainly Maya Indian department of Totonicapan in Guatemala's western highlands.
Hours uphill from the nearest town, endangered giants swayed as freezing mist curled around their trunks in surroundings most would associate with Switzerland rather than Central America.
Poachers rip off new branches and seed cones, preventing them from reproducing.
In Totonicapan, since 1993 a 108,000-strong association of Mayas from surrounding villages keen to protect vital springs trickling down through the forest to their tiny plots of land, have patrolled the area in a battle to keep poachers out.
"This is their home as much as ours," 68-year old guardian Juan Garcia said of the trees in the chilly hamlet of Chuipec.
A crackling walkie-talkie barked that rangers on the other side of the forest had arrested two men loaded down with branches. But even the threat of jail does little to deter poachers who know they can sell their wares.
In a Guatemala City street market, vendors laden with tinsel and straw reindeer hawked their last supplies of the trees.
As 17-year old vendor Roberto Belalmino hammered hundreds of branches in a pile beside him onto a wooden pole, the makeshift tree he planned to sell for about $15 took shape.
He knew the Fir was in danger and hoped that managed plantations would one day provide his supplies. But he admitted he was more worried about his family's survival.
"I feel bad about selling them," he said. "But this is how I feed my kids."
