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Environmental and agrarian changes are proceeding rapidly in southern Belize. Despite common recognition of these changes, little research has attempted to examine the class processes involved in social and environmental change. We trace how capitalism has transformed household reproduction over the past four decades, focusing on two key pathways by which these changes unfold: the commercialization of land use and the education of the labour force. Emerging class processes in the Maya communities undermine subsistence agriculture, generate inequality between households and genders, and magnify conflicts over land. These effects complicate struggles for communal land rights and class solidarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past three decades, however, state-sponsored industrial logging, mining, and agribusiness activities have increasingly threatened Maya land rights as the government has granted concessions to multinational corporations without consulting Maya villages. At present, the Toledo Alcaldes Association (TAA), consisting of 78 leaders from 41 Maya communities in Toledo District, is the main representative body of the Maya people. Citing the MLA and TAA's claim that the alcaldes represent a form of customary communal governance sanctioned by Maya communities collectively, the government asserted: "We do not believe that there is such "collective governance system" of the Maya people.". [Extracted from the article]