{"id":1924,"date":"2012-10-15T16:26:44","date_gmt":"2012-10-15T21:26:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rideintobirdland.com\/en\/enlife-and-work-of-joann-andrews-indefatigable-protector-of-the-yucatan-peninsula-part-ii-of-iiiesvida-y-obra-de-joann-andrews-protectora-incansable-de-la-peni%cc%81nsula-de-yucata%cc%81n-p"},"modified":"2018-02-02T20:02:35","modified_gmt":"2018-02-02T20:02:35","slug":"vida-y-obra-de-joann-andrews-protectora-incansable-de-la-peninsula-de-yucatan-p","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rideintobirdland.com\/en\/life-and-work-of-joann-andrews-indefatigable-protector-of-the-yucatan-peninsula-part-ii-of-iii\/","title":{"rendered":"Life and work of Joann Andrews, indefatigable protector of the Yucatan Peninsula (part II of III)"},"content":{"rendered":"

RIDE INTO BIRDLAND<\/em><\/strong> is honored to present the second installment of our reportage about noted conservationist Joann Andrews, Founder and Honorary President of Pronatura Pen\u00ednsula de Yucat\u00e1n. Read on to learn how she created the first English-riding club in Yucatan, and later used it as a springboard to further the cause of conservation and help save the Peninsula\u2019s forest reserves.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Forest in the Yucatan Peninsula (Photo \u00a9 Iv\u00e1n Gabald\u00f3n)<\/p><\/div>\n

Part II of III<\/strong><\/p>\n

The urge to preserve<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

A visitor to Joann Andrew\u2019s study will surely notice the large, vertical ink-on-paper rubbing that flanks its entrance, an original work by engraver Merle Greene Robertson. A native of Montana, Merle Greene Robertson received a classic arts education in California, then worked at Tikal in Guatemala, at Palenque in Chiapas and at various Mayan archaeological sites in the Yucatan Peninsula, attaining wide recognition for her life\u2019s investigative work on Mayan culture. She pioneered the use of a technique to directly imprint the walls and monuments of Mayan cities unto large format rice paper, making thousands of these rubbings during four decades of hard work. In many cases her detailed prints are all that\u2019s left of original stones that have since fallen prey to looting or decay.<\/p>\n

When Merle Greene Robertson started her field work in Yucatan in 1968, she had already been forewarned that Joann Andrews was someone she needed to meet, and whose acquaintance she would thoroughly enjoy. At the time Joann was in charge of the library her late husband had spent decades collecting, which according to Dr. Robertson\u2019s memoirs she kept \u201cnot only up to top academic standards but open to scholars, both Mexican and outsiders\u201d. At first Merle was a bit intimidated, but she had no reason to be. \u201cWhen I finally called Joann Andrews, she and Tulane University\u2019s Middle Research Institute became for me, as she has for many others, a valuable source of research. She also was a vital link with home and civilization – mailing address, telephone connection, later a parking space for my old Volkswagen Beetle – as well as an admired friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

The friendship of these two American women, explorers in a strange land that both managed to make very much their own, spanned several decades. They remained friends until Merle Greene Robertson\u2019s passing in early 2011 or, one should say, to this day. \u201cI miss her terribly\u201d, Joann confides. Their appreciation was mutual, as evidenced by the following quote by Merle Greene Robertson about Joann: \u201cshe\u2019s a person who knows a lot about any subject\u201d. The statement, not to be taken lightly considering its source, provides us with a valuable clue to Joann Andrews\u2019 mind. How else could she, having formally studied Political Sciences and Economics but not Archaeology or Botanical Science, work so effectively with the teams of archeologists and then go on to become a noted orchid expert in her own right?<\/p>\n

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Merle Greene Robertson (File photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

As it turned out, her political skills were also about to be called into play, often in unexpected ways. For if Merle was bent on preserving Mayan culture through its images, Joann had become determined to protect the natural landscape of the Peninsula, a mission that would entail dealing with people, including private citizens from all walks of life, government officials, politicians and international organizations. Her good friend, Eric Hagsater, offered some advice, based on his own experience in local politics: the best of intentions often floundered and it was difficult to get much done inside the framework of being associated with one political party. Joann was also very much an outsider, an American in a country where President Echeverr\u00eda himself loudly voiced the prevailing anti-US rhetoric. \u201cI had people accuse me of all things\u201d, she says with the humor now afforded by time. \u201cI was collecting orchids, but I must be CIA if I\u2019m going down to the Guatemalan border\u201d.<\/p>\n

Her plan to open a local chapter of Pronatura, an organization based in Mexico City, also rubbed uncomfortably against an ingrained Yucatecan sentiment by virtue of which the Peninsula resents both attention and oblivion from the country\u2019s capital. Those who knew Joann well, however, anticipated that she would work hard and succeed. Again in Merle Greene Robertson\u2019s memoirs, the author writes: \u201cWhen in the early 1980s Joann focused her energies and knowledge on getting a conservation group started on the Peninsula, I knew it would work and that she would get great satisfaction in making it a success\u201d.<\/p>\n

The trojan horse that allowed Joann to permeate Yucatecan society would turn out to be precisely a horse, or rather, her love of horses, aided no doubt by her industrious personality. An active rider all her life, Joann is widely recognized as the pioneer of English-riding in Yucatan. Over three decades ago she founded the Peninsula\u2019s first equestrian club at Hacienda Tamanch\u00e9, managing all club affairs personally with careful attention to detail. \u201cEvery month I sent the twelve or so members an accounting of what I had done with the money, which sounds like something everybody would do, but it was most unusual here\u201d, she remembers. These were the same people her local chapter of Pronatura needed to enlist: industrial, high society, concerned citizens who also loved nature. \u201cI asked them whether they would be willing to join me in Pronatura, and I think the fact that I had been so financially correct was one of the reasons they said yes\u201d. She would set it up with them at a local level, and they in turn could have faith that it would be a serious undertaking.<\/p>\n

From the beginning she was also successful in securing funds from larger, international organizations. \u201cWe were very fortunate to have excellent funding from the World Wildlife Fund<\/em>, also from The Nature Conservancy<\/em>, who was interested in trying to convert what you would call paper parks<\/em> into real reserves that could protect the flora and fauna inside\u201d. Mexico\u2019s reserves had meager government resources, lacking even basic funding for park rangers, yet the law expressly prohibited any direct payments from NGOs to reserve personnel. As a solution Pronatura devised a plan to provide canastas<\/em>, baskets filled with much-needed goods and supplies. \u201cIn August they would ask us if we could include pencils and little cuadernos<\/em> for the children, they didn\u2019t even have money for that. We were in a strategic place with really useful tools to help out\u201d.<\/p>\n

As for working with the government, \u201cit\u2019s not easy, it never was. But we never went in asking for money, we had the money, and that put us on a slightly different level\u201d. When Salinas became president Joann saw the general situation improve, \u201che put in many new reserves and gave support\u201d, she attests. He also made it government policy to cooperate with NGOs. \u201cWe were among the first NGOs, and I would say that from that point on we\u2019ve always had a very useful relationship with the government, give and take, but it\u2019s always touchy\u201d. One must always be willing, she points out without a hint of bitterness, \u201cto take the back seat and let the government officials get all credit when the big presentation comes, but that\u2019s all right as long as things get done, it doesn\u2019t make any difference\u201d.<\/p>\n

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White-nosed Coati (Nasua narica), one of the many species of mammals that thrive in the forests of the Yucatan Peninsula (Photo \u00a9 Iv\u00e1n Gabald\u00f3n)<\/p><\/div>\n

Through years of work Joann gained political experience and honed her skills at charming people into supporting Pronatura. Once, she remembers with zest, she invited a good friend for lunch. \u201cI said, Carlos, you have to help us with Pronatura. He later told his friends, don\u2019t go to lunch with Joann Andrews, it\u2019s the most expensive tacos you\u2019ve ever had!\u201d A press clipping from the Sarasota Herald Tribune, dated back in 1989, provides a now historical glimpse into her fundraising work: it reports a visit to Southwest Florida by environmentalist Joann Andrews with the goal of raising 25,000 dollars for the protection of the Yucatan Peninsula\u2019s tropical rain forest, specifically by cooperating with the Mexican government in the management of the recently created Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. Audience members in Sarasota each paid $10 to hear her exposition about the importance of tropical forests, the scourge of deforestation and the now well known threat of rising temperatures around the globe. Many of those who attended donated additional funds. She also promoted an idea that would soon be put into effect: working with the local communities \u201cto establish beehives that take advantage of the rich flower population of the forest, and sell the resulting honey – a crop that benefits both man and nature\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Honey production is a truly sustainable activity, good for both humans and the environment (Photo \u00a9 Iv\u00e1n Gabald\u00f3n)<\/p><\/div>\n

The case for honey production as a truly sustainable activity is one that Joann continues to make with pleasure and conviction. \u201cOf all the economic activities\u201d, she says, \u201cbee-keeping is by far the most ecological. The bees pollinate the very trees that have fruit on them, and it\u2019s marvelous, everything is good about it\u201d. She eventually obtained the funding needed to initiate the program, which remains successful to this day. In its first stages, however, it would provide her with a dire reminder of the unexpected cascade of consequences that may spring from even the best of intentions, particularly when the human factor is involved.<\/p>\n

Having secured funding to get the bee-keeping program started, Joann enlisted the help of a Merida businessman who was willing to provide local communities with training, resources and technical support, and would then act as commercial liaison by shipping Yucatan honey to buyers in Mexico City. A meeting was arranged with the men of various ejidos in southern Campeche, near Calakmul, and the idea was presented to them. \u201cIt all sounded good to me\u201d, Joann says, \u201cbut all these men were grumbling, listening with serious faces\u201d. The meeting was a total failure, the men rebuked the proposal and accused the businessman of being a coyote<\/em>. \u201cThey said all he wants to do is buy our honey cheap, then make lots of money on it, and we\u2019re not going to work with him, we know those people\u201d, she recollects.<\/p>\n

After the meeting, a crestfallen Joann was getting ready to leave when a group of local women approached her. \u201cDon\u2019t pay attention to our husbands, they just don\u2019t want to go out and work every day. Is there any way we could do it?\u201d, they said. After some conversation it was agreed the program would be set in motion with sixteen local women, the only additional requirement being the special protective equipment they would need to work with the bees while they were nursing.<\/p>\n

The women worked with dedication and managed to produce a modest first crop, which earned them a little money. A year later, however, their expertise had increased and a truly good crop was achieved for the first time. One Saturday night, around 10:00 pm, Joann received an alarming call from the Pronatura representative in charge of the project. A horrible crisis had caught everyone off-guard after a meeting that had been initially considered successful: having tallied the production and given each woman an envelope with the money earned for the kilos of honey she had produced, the women went to their homes only to stumble upon the male dominance deeply ingrained in their communities. \u201cThe husbands said\u201d, Joann remembers with contempt, \u201cwe\u2019re the ones that allowed you to go out and that\u2019s our money, it\u2019s not your money\u201d. Most of the women had no choice but to relinquish their earnings, \u201ctwo of them got beaten up and one of those fled home. It was the first time they\u2019d ever gotten any real money on their own\u201d.<\/p>\n

At first Joann wasn\u2019t sure what to do. Not one to be easily defeated, she managed to enlist a volunteer, \u201csomeone involved in solutions for these kinds of situations\u201d, whom she praises to this day for his smart approach to the problem. After setting up a new meeting with the women and men of the ejidos<\/em>, \u201che came in with a big blackboard, and he had all the women sit on one side and all these surly men on the other. Then he said, I\u2019m going to write up here everything each one of you would like to do with the money. I\u2019ll start with the women\u201d. As she observed in silence, Joann realized her collaborator was setting the stage for things to fall by their own weight. \u201cOver and over the women would say, I want to buy shoes for the children, or books, or a dress for them. The children were always first, then things like a new sewing machine. He would write the items and put checkmarks, shoes for the children, check, books for school, check. I\u2019d say about ten percent said cosmetics, but that was good too\u201d.<\/p>\n

Having finished with the women, the negotiator turned to the men and asked them what they would do with the money. \u201cOf course everybody knew that they wanted to go to the cantina<\/em> and drink it up\u201d, Joann points out, \u201cso they grumbled and grumbled\u2026 and finally one of them said, Well, that looks all right to us. That\u2019s what we would like to do with the money too<\/em>\u201d. The mediator, however, was not so easily satisfied: he asked for assurances and got them to express that indeed they would let the women have their money and spend at least 70 percent of it on their children. \u201cIsn\u2019t that marvelous?\u201d, Joann says with a huge smile. \u201cThere was the pizarr\u00f3n<\/em>, what is it that you would want to do? Go to the cantina<\/em> would have been so bad!\u201d, she laughs. As a result the men learned to respect their women\u2019s rights to work and to invest the money earned in the welfare of their own children.<\/p>\n

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First introduced to the Peninsula by the conquistadors, alcohol has since remained a pervasive social ill among Mayan communities. This scene from a 2012 play by the “Laboratorio de Teatro Campesino e Ind\u00edgena” depicts a Mayan woman flogging her drunken husband back home. This community theatre group, directed by Mar\u00eda Alicia Mart\u00ednez Medrano, stages impressive performances with a cast of hundreds of villagers of all ages in X’ocen, near Valladolid, Yucatan. (Photo \u00a9 Iv\u00e1n Gabald\u00f3n)<\/p><\/div>\n

There are currently at least four active cooperatives of women that produce premium organic honey in the Peninsula and sell it both locally and to the international market (mostly Germany), and the project continues to be promoted as there is still room for growth. Pronatura Peninsula de Yucatan has since implemented other programs, cooperating with the Mexican government in Federal Reserves such as Calakmul in the state of Campeche, of which Joann says, \u201cit\u2019s a huge success, the guards themselves have done a really good job of keeping the hunters out\u201d. The organization has also obtained funding to buy land and turn it into natural protected areas, as is the case of El Zapotal, 2.358 hectares of forest purchased in 2002 as part of a strategy to preserve important habitat and attenuate the strong pressure of agrarian economy on the R\u00eda Lagartos Biosphere Reserve, in northern Yucatan.<\/p>\n

The challenges remain many and constant, the threats to the environment ever-present and always changing. Now bearing the title of Honorary President, Joann remains actively involved in Pronatura Peninsula de Yucatan. Summing up her experience, she says: \u201cI was very fortunate right from the very beginning, I had some wonderful people joining in. We were also exceptionally lucky to have a fantastic director, Mar\u00eda Andrade.\u201d When asked if she truly enjoys the work she has to do for the environment, perhaps as much as she enjoyed the thrill of discovering a new world of orchids in the Yucatan, her reply was a joyous \u201cYes! I enjoy it. To see something take off, you can imagine how that feels good. One of the great gratifications I had was just to see it bloom into certainly the strongest conservation group in the Peninsula\u201d.<\/p>\n

As it happens, just like her dear friend Merle Greene Robertson had anticipated.<\/p>\n

I.G.H.<\/p>\n

(…to be continued<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

For more information about the programs and activities organized by Pronatura Peninsula de Yucat\u00e1n, please visit their website by clicking on the logo below.<\/em><\/p>\n

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<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RIDE INTO BIRDLAND is honored to present the second installment of our reportage about noted conservationist Joann Andrews, Founder and Honorary President of Pronatura Pen\u00ednsula de Yucat\u00e1n. Read on to learn how she created the first English-riding club in Yucatan, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[37,66,73,97,128],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rideintobirdland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1924"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rideintobirdland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rideintobirdland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rideintobirdland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rideintobirdland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1924"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/rideintobirdland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9647,"href":"https:\/\/rideintobirdland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1924\/revisions\/9647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rideintobirdland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rideintobirdland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rideintobirdland.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}