The Trees of the Maya

When the ancient Maya stopped caring for their forests, their entire culture suffered. There is a lesson here

The Maya civilization is regarded as one of the most complex and advanced civilizations ever recorded. Active from 2000 B.C. to 900 A.D. in Mesoamerica, the Maya are known for their advancements in writing, art, architecture and mathematics.

They also practiced forest conservation, according to a recent study carried out by paleoethnobotanist David Lentz of the University of Cincinnati.

Lentz also noted that "when they abandoned their forest conservation practices it was to the detriment of the entire Maya culture."

In the early part of their history, the Mayans were forbidden from cutting down "sacred groves," but the ruler Jasaw Chan K’awiil I did exactly that during his reign from 682 to 734, killing virgin forests that were two centuries old to build huge temples.

"When you clear all the forests, it changes the hydrologic cycle," said Lentz. "The world is like a flat surface with all the trees acting as sponges on it. The trees absorb the water. Without the trees, there is no buffer to stop the water from runoff. That causes soil erosion, which then chokes the rivers and streams. With no trees, you lose water retention in the soil or aquifers so the ground dries up and then there is less transpiration, so therefore less rainfall as well."

Additionally, trees act as carbon storage facilities, keeping global-warming carbon dioxide gas from entering the atmosphere.

Rainforests once made up 14% of the planet's land surface -- today that figure is just 6%. Some scientists estimate that at the current rate of deforestation (Brazil has cleared a chunk the size of Connecticut in the last three decades alone), the world's remaining rainforests will be gone in as little as 40 years.

Mexican-American author and leading New Age Mayanist José Argüelles has argued that, according to the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar that was used by the Mayans, there will be a cataclysmic event on December 12, 2012 (or "12/12/12") -- a date that has been the subject of several books and films.

Whether or not he is right, it is fairly certain that unless better forest conservation is practiced today, current human societies -- indeed, entire ecosystems -- will someday be paying a dear price.

As advanced as they were, the Maya made a mistake in clearcutting their forests. It seems that, no matter what calendar one uses, history is repeating itself. But this time it could be much worse.

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image: This is a small section of the glyphs carved into La Mojarra Stela 1, a Mesoamerican carved monument (stela) dating from the 2nd century CE. The left column shows the Long Count date of 8.5.16.9.7, or 156 CE (June 23, 156 CE by one calculation). Among these glyphs are two Mesoamerican Long Count calendar dates which correspond to May 143 CE and July 156 CE. The monument is an early example of the type of stela which later became common commemorating rulers of Maya sites in the Classic era. The two right columns are glyphs from the little-known Epi-Olmec script also known as the Isthmusian or La Mojarra script. This was cropped from Maunu's photograph in the English Wikipedia. (credit: Madman2001, Wikimedia Commons)