ITZA MAYA TROPICAL AGROFORESTRY

The claims made here are that (I) modem Itza of Peten, Guatemala, integrate field cultivation with tropical-forest management through a multifaceted and multispecies system; 12) this agro-forestry regime has direct ties to preconquest Lowland Maya systems; (3) it is characterized by a symbiosis that cyclically works to sustain Itza culture by regenerating the forest's biodiversity indefinitely; (4) the collapse of Late Classic civilization may be attributable in part to the turning of this extensive type of multicropping and tree tending towards more intensive and parasitic agro-engineering systems; and (5) the enduring basis for Peten Maya forest culture, which has survived for centuries, perhaps millennia, is now threatened with imminent extinction as the trees are razed, the animals disappear, and the Itza language dies.