The future of an ancient Mayan site buried in Guatemala's tropical forest is at the center of a battle between locals and an American archeologist.

Watch our story, w @strictlysimilak @thomson_craig @CharlyD82 Rob Cosentino & Mike Lopez, here: THREAD 1/

American archeologist Richard Hansen has worked at El Mirador for decades. He’s spent the last 20 yrs going beyond typical archeological duties by designing & promoting a plan to build a privately-managed park in the area. 2/

Hansen says his plan would protect the ruins and surrounding forest from looters, loggers and drug traffickers. That sounds great, but there’s already a community based system in placed doing just that. 3/

The Forestry Concession System allows local communities to live off the UNESCO-designated tropical forest, called the Maya Biosphere Reserve, in exchange for protecting it. Since the system started in the 90s, it has significantly slowed deforestation. 4/ https://www.rainforest-alliance.org/articles/community-the-secret-to-stopping-deforestation-in-guatemala

Hansen says his park will bring prosperity to the area by creating tourism jobs. But residents would become employees of companies operating in the park, instead of stakeholders as they are now. His proposal would also ban their main source of income, sustainable logging. 5/

Despite the system's success, Hansen's plan may become a reality in the Maya Biosphere Reserve. Four US senators are sponsoring a bill to give $60M that would help fund the park. If the bill passes, it might be hard for Guatemala to turn it down:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/3131?s=1&r=38 END