These photos reveal the unique agricultural system of the Maya people

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These photos reveal the unique agricultural system of the Maya people

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The “milpa” system

Matilde Gattoni

For millennia, the Maya people of Guatemala have been practising a unique agricultural system that fuses sustainability, climate resilience and environmental preservation. Based on the interconnections between plants and the surrounding elements, the “milpa” system combines nature with various managed crops such as corn, squash and beans (pictured above).

Rather than extracting everything from the land, the milpa approach focuses on the long-term benefits of sustainable land management. The United Nations recently included it in a

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on eight Indigenous food systems that can help the world stem the worst effects of climate change and achieve the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

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Traditional basket-weaving

Matilde Gattoni

This renewed recognition of ancient agricultural techniques is part of a broader movement by the Indigenous Maya people to reclaim their past and find their place in modern Guatemala. This revival also includes the promotion of traditional arts, such as basket-weaving, seen here carried out by 61-year-old Valeriano López Méndez from the Suchiquer community (pictured above), traditional Mayan clothing (shown below) and spiritual practices and languages.

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Traditional Mayan clothing

Matilde Gattoni

One of the bedrocks of the ancient Maya civilisation, Lake Atitlán (pictured below), has become a central fixture of this new trend. In these lakeside communities, the past and the present blend into a way of life that preserves and promotes all aspects of their civilisation.

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Lake Atitlán

Matilde Gattoni

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