Participants of the Convergence included Mesoamericans working within their countries with organizations that serve a local population and emphasize sustainable development as an integral part of their mission. In attendance were representatives from Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Mexico, Belize, Honduras, and Guatemala. Throughout the course of the Convergence, each participant led a workshop outlining the contexts of their work in relation to the social and environmental realities of their respective countries. Participants engaged in discussions in which they shared their experiences and views on matters of disaster response and mitigation, and the Mesoamerican reality in relation to democracy, economics, the environment, climate change, and external international factors. Juan and Rony gave an introduction to permaculture and touched on its relation to subjects such as health and nutrition, food security, renewable technology, seed patrimony, natural building, and women’s issues.

In addition to group discussions, attendees participated in excursions to better understand the cultural, environmental, social, and political landscape of the Lake Atitlan area. Included in these activities was familiarization with the Mayan calendar and taking part in a Mayan ceremony to offer thanks to Mother Earth. Tours of IMAP’s center and I’Jatz, an organic coffee plantation designed through permaculture methods in San Lucas Toliman, exposed participants to the working reality and benefits of permaculture in action. The local Mayan musical groups Musica Aj and Marimba Atitecos performed at IMAP during the Convergence.

An entire day of the Mesoamerican Convergence was devoted to understanding the effects of October’s Hurricane Stan in Guatemala. Driving through the highlands, the scope of the hurricane’s destruction was evidenced by the many damaged roads and bridges still in the preliminary phases of reconstruction, as well as the hills and mountainsides displaying large barren gashes where mudslides had occurred. The group walked amidst the village of Panabaj in Santiago Atitlan that had been entirely buried in mud by a landslide and the makeshift refugee camp that has been set up for survivors. Participants listened to local community members and activists speak about the dilemmas they are facing in their current struggle to demand adequate land and housing for those left homeless because of the disaster. In the latter half of the day the group visited Porvenir, a community for previous hurricane victims, and spoke with community leaders about the various stages of resettlement following a natural disaster. After these outings, delegates of the Convergence talked about their own experiences with natural disasters in the vulnerable Mesoamerican region, prospects for mitigation, and possibilities for providing and receiving aid in cases of disaster that are more adequate than what governments have been able to provide in the past.

The Mesoamerican Convergence on Sustainable Development and Permaculture culminated with the participants coming together to form a network for interchanging future ideas and resources, thus greatly disseminating the pragmatic alternatives offered by permaculture to bring about more sustainable existences. The delegates present drafted a declaration of solidarity affirming that permaculture, based in the observation and experience with natural systems, has a great deal of practical knowledge to apply to the problems that are present at the grassroots level and should be used as a strategy for proposing sustainable solutions to the most pressing political, cultural, environmental and social problems in the Mesoamerican region.

As a follow-up to the Convergence participants have been offered a two-week permaculture certification course. They have decided that the course will be held in August, but the location is yet to be determined.

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