And as you heard, the residents of Barranco are particularly incensed because they want economic resources and development to be funneled into their community.
That kind of community benefit was demonstrated as a possibility by the Mayan community of Conejo Creek. As we told you, the village owns a company that engages in indigenous sustainable forestry. The financial benefits of the community go back to the villagers in an enterprise carried out in consultation with the NGO, SATIIM.
That entrepreneurial success came up this weekend during the public information campaign conducted by the Ministry of Indigenous People's Affairs on the FPIC Protocol. Here's what Greg Ch'oc had to say about it:
Greg Ch'oc - Commissioner, Indigenous Peoples Affairs
"I always use the case of Conejo. Some of you may not know. Conejo is the only village in this country that has export rosewood to the European Union - the only community. We have to understand how did it happened. I have said to the ministers of government, nothing stop San Pedro Colombia from learning what Conejo has done and do a sustainable forest plan for the Colombia Forest Reserve, San Miguel, Silver Creek, Indian Creek, San Jose - in the end the entire reserve is going to be under management. That is what the community wants, it brings an income to them. Conejo, over the Christmas holiday gave groceries, $200 worth to each household from out of their enterprise, out of the money of the company and they gave $50 every month to every elder in the village. SATIIM sat with them, trained them - everybody has an aspiration, everybody has a dream, but materializing that dream is sometimes complicated."
Last month, that community-owned company exported nearly 51-hundred board feet of rosewood to a company in France.
