society sustainable past
Mayan legacy It did not rain for four months of the year yet the Mayan civilisation thrived for two millennia thanks to its water management skills... skills that are being copied again, today. By Gary Wright
terracing, water reservoirs and raised fields were a part of the landscape they even had public gardens. The Mayans were also arguably the earliest practitioners of agroforestry. Fertile soil was farmed in a patchwork surrounded by rainforest. Agricultural fields went through five stages: herbaceous stage, two shrub stages, and then two forest stages, returning the land to its former state. Even after intensive land use for over 1,500 years without any significant problems, scientists say the areas occupied by the Maya still support a high and unique biodiversity demon-
T
he Mayan culture, which lasted
people by 700 AD supported by excellent
strating how man can live successfully
for more than 2,000 years in the
water management and farming.
alongside nature.
jungles of Belize, the Yucatan
Mayans’ ecological knowledge and
A series of unusual droughts around
Peninsula, and Guatemala, was argu-
engineering skills was used to great ef-
900 AD was closely associated with the
ably the first sustainable civilisation.
fect. They depended on and collected
collapse of the Classic Mayan civilisa-
In an area we know today as Central
rainwater – they were unable to reach
tion especially as the population had
America, stretching from today’s south-
the groundwater 150m below the sur-
grown so much. Most of the Mayan
ern end of Mexico, south to the Hondu-
face – draining the seasonal swamp-
cities in the southern Maya lowlands
ras, the Mayans achieved greatness in
lands (known as bajos) via canals and
were abandoned. Drought, ecologi-
astronomy, mathematics and art.
then used the former swamp for crops.
cal collapse and overpopulation led
Before it ended in around 900 AD,
Archaeologists have found evi-
to the abandonment of sustainable
ancient Maya was one of the world’s
dence of reservoirs that could hold
methods and ultimately the end of a
great civilisations; created in a region
thousands of cubic metres of rainwa-
great civilisation.
with unpredictable rainfall and poor
ter. One of the largest, the Palace Res-
Today though the Mayans skills are
soil, it succeeded through truly sus-
ervoir, held an estimated 19,715,424
being rediscovered and are incorporat-
tainable farming.
US gallons (75,000 m3).
ed into the management of the Car-
The Mayan city of Tikal, in modern-
Success brought a growing popula-
day Guatemala, had was home to 80,000
tion that needed food and agricultural
ibbean and in other countries of the world where water resource is tight.
80,000 population of mayan city of tikal
75,000m3 capacity of one ancient reservoir
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