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Ana Sanchez Bachman
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Background
It is November, and I find myself sitting at the edge of a table, the late afternoon wind blowing through a balcony shielding us all from the bustle of Guatemala City. An older woman sits next to me. She is wearing an elaborately sewn outfit, representing her community. Her hands are worn by years of work, and the other women around her, many of whom are wearing their traditional regional outfits, listen in attention as she discusses how women have worked alongside men and yet have not been given the same opportunity to succeed.
How can it be, she says, that we work the land, harvest, and keep it when they are away, but we are not eligible for incentives or government programs because we do not own it? A younger woman speaks up, agreeing. How can it be that through the droughts and the hurricanes, through the years of scarcity, they have been expected to fight for their communities but still have to fear for their safety and be told they cannot be responsible for the towns and villages that they come from?
All of these women are representatives from across Guatemala who are familiar with agriculture and livelihood from Guatemalan forests. Issues raised in our breakout group include land ownership, which is essential in programs that incentivize forest conservation and what can be termed responsible usage, but which one needs documentation to receive benefits from. They also discuss the difficulties in becoming involved in traditional practices and knowledge production and how to keep these things alive in a quickly changing landscape. Guatemala is changing, communities send their people to larger urban centers or north to Mexico and the United States, and meanwhile, the land conditions become more unpredictable.
The purpose of this conversation, one of many over the following week, was to collect information and feedback for a process referred to as the ccGAP being produced by IUCN in collaboration with the Guatemalan government and more importantly in partnership with many dozens of women who came to Guatemala
City, and others whom we would later visit in cities across the country.
The ccGAP process is one that, in part, asks questions often left to the margins, how do the phenomena associated with climate change disproportionately affect women?
Subsequently, how does climate change policy for adaptation to these changes and mitigation often leave women out? In the case of Guatemala, this question is increasingly urgent, as the country experiences an expansion of its so-called dry corridor and as a bi- coastal nation whose export economy comes under risk from sea level rise and storms from both sides. Moreover, as the women I spoke with point out, with migration as one answer to questions of scarcity, where does that leave these women who stay behind?
The Guatemalan government is involved in this process, as are several international organizations seeking answers to these issues. Through the ccGAP, which I and one other student were able to observe, it became clear that the women of these communities were organized and aware of issues surrounding them but required additional resources and support. Over the course of the workshops, the notion that this process could provide them with both of those things became more real. While describing their ideal outcomes, their dreams, I was privileged to see the passion that came with that. While there had been cynicism in early conversations, it was instructive to watch how groups advocated for themselves and for their needs to be represented.
Historically, Guatemala’s relationship with its rural and predominantly Indigenous populations has not been peaceful or equitable. Guatemala witnessed high rates of migration due to some of the conflicts related to this. More recently, people have migrated (among other reasons) because of a loss of livelihood, either because they cannot compete on the global market or because the conditions of their land have changed through drought and weather issues. Speaking with attendants of the ccGAP workshops, I heard many migration stories, and more and more had to do with an untenable climate situation. Nevertheless, so many wanted to find a solution, keep their crops going, protect and preserve their local forests, and provide livelihoods for themselves and their families. The will for change and adaptation is there, there is simply a need for resources, and these communities - these women - can handle the rest.
As someone who has spent much of my doctoral research engaging with stories about what leads people to migrate from places like Guatemala or Mexico, it was heartening to watch organizations like the Kaschak Institute, IUCN, and the Guatemalan government representatives work to find ways to strengthen these communities. The ccGAP is still underway, although it was validated this past Winter, and will be presented for implementation in the near future. Being part of that process, it was clear that surely it has already made some impact. One such impact is the way it has brought people together from around Guatemala
who have something to share. Local NGOs, community leaders, and representatives from local government attended these workshops, and many who had not had the opportunity to discuss things with this diverse group of stakeholders were given the opportunity to have their voices heard.
Personally, I can speak to the impact it has had on my view of climate change as a
driving force in migration. While many in the public may consider climate change and climate refugeeism an issue
to be worried about in the next ten years, it is clear that it is already happening
and will not stop any time soon. I will return to my work in the Arizona-Sonora border region and, thanks to the
ccGAP experience, extend its scope to the Guatemala-Mexico region, with more insight
and more motivation to tell the stories of how climate change is an urgent matter
that our immigration policy should adapt to reflect. This process reminded me what
it means to let women be part of political and social change, and that without the
input and efforts of communities of women we cannot hope to face the problems that
climate change presents.
