A few minutes ago, in a union hall bare except for bits of faded streamers, friends described Catalán's life and hopes. Among the speakers was Carlos Soza, director of ProPetén/Conservation International, a nongovernmental organization receiving IDB funding and a partner with Catalán in efforts to conserve local forest resources.

Catalán, Soza said, was a man who loved both the forest and his town of Carmelita, a tiny community at the end of the road in Guatemala's Petén forest. Like many of his neighbors, Catalán made his living by gathering forest products, among them chicle sap, the traditional ingredient in chewing gum.

Catalán was a recognized authority on the Petén's multitude of plant and animal species and a valued friend of many scientists. He helped discover a new archeological site and a possible new species of deer.

Catalán saw firsthand that his community's way of life was being threatened. The Petén's forests are disappearing at an alarming rate, victims of logging and the incursions of land-hungry migrants.

With the support of ProPetén, Catalán set to work on a management plan for a 53,000-hectare forest concession that would help ensure his community's livelihood. The plan would spell out the rules under which community members could gather allspice and products for the floral and chicle industries, cut limited amounts of timber under strict management, and hunt and fish for local consumption.

After years of cajoling and consensus building, countless meetings and trips to the capital, the government approved the concession. The first shipment of wood cut under the plan was readied, and Catalán arranged for the trucks to come on Sunday, June 8. Naturally, he wanted to be there. At 11:30 p.m., what was to have been a day of triumph ended in tragedy when Catalán was felled by a gunman.

Although Guatemala's civil war is over, the Petén and many other areas are living through a period of wrenching environmental and political change. Even a small town can be the scene of fierce rivalries and complex personal agendas. Although the town as a whole backed the forest concession plan, Catalán had received threats.

The procession continued past tiny stores, tire repair shops, cheap hotels, doorways with people peering out. It passed by the cemetery's ornate iron gate and ended in an overgrown corner of the field where a concrete vault, still dark and raw, had been built atop an existing one.

One speaker rose up and denounced the climate of lawlessness, and a bystander remarked that in the Petén, murders seldom go unavenged. Another speaker reminded the crowd that Catalán was not the first person to die defending the forest and his community's livelihood. In fact, many had already noted the uncanny similarities between the life and death of Catalán and his famous counterpart from the western Amazon, Chico Mendes.

Then the vault was troweled shut, closing a sad chapter in the efforts of one community to protect its environment and its way of life.

--the editor