Outside Resources
Explore our recommended list of credible resources in a variety of forms that suit your learning style. We welcome suggestions; please email us at info@exploringsolutionspast.org or fill out this form.
Articles
- What is Maya, What Is To Be Maya? by Pedro Uc Be
- La Va Campesina
- Antigua Agricultura Maya Leccion Para La Actualidad by Manuel Lino
- Belizean Delegation & Pixan Ixim Visit Green Cover by Green Cover
- Seeds of Resistance From a diary of maize by The Dark Mountain Project
- Pacific Northwest’s ‘forest gardens’ were deliberately planted by Indigenous people by Science
- Indigenous knowledge is key to sustainable food systems by Nature
- Flowers and Plants to Attract Birds and other Wildlife by AvasFlowers
- Bees and Honey: Creating Pollinator Gardens by BottleStore
Podcasts
- Forest / Garden by Future Ecologies
- Back to the Garden: Cacao’s Role in Reviving Biodiversity by A World of Possibilities
- Vanishing and Re-emerging: Reviving Biological and Cultural Diversity by A World of Possibilities
- The Maya Milpa System Part 1 and Part 2 by The Poor Prole’s Almanac
- Modern Maya Milpa with Dr. Anabel Ford & Maya Farmers by The Poor Prole’s Almanac
Botanical Databases
- PLANTS Database by United States Department of Agriculture
- Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) by United States Geological Survey and Smithsonian Institution
- Plants of the World Online by Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
- Tropicos
- SEINet Data Portal by National Science Foundation Grants
- Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
- Florida Native Plant Society
- TopTropicals
- Rainforest Alliance
- Palmpedia
- Flora: Yucatan Peninsula
- CABI
- Reports by FLAAR Mesoamerica on Flora & Fauna of Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo Peten, Guatemala, Central America
- Institute for Regional Conservation
- iNaturalist
- Backyard Nature
- Gardino Nursery Rare and Unusual Plants
Books
The Maya Forest Garden: Eight Millennia of Sustainable Cultivation of the Tropical Woodlands
by Anabel Ford and Ronald Nigh
It is a common belief that the ancient Maya disappeared and their population became too large to be supported with the known traditional farming practices. In this book, Ford and Nigh respond to this and many of today’s misconceptions about the Maya civilization.
Purchase the book on Routledge, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.
The Maya Forest Garden of El Pilar: A Plant Coloring Book
by Anabel Ford
It is a coloring book and it’s aimed at standard three students as part of the African and Maya history curriculum. It includes both the English and Spanish version.
Look Inside and Download Sample Pages
Purchase the book at 12 Belize
The One-Straw Revolution
by Masanobu Fukuoka
Fukuoka demonstrates how the way we look at farming influences the way we look at health, the school, nature, nutrition, spiritual health and life itself. He joins the healing of the land to the process of purifying the human spirit and proposes a way of life and a way of farming in which such healing can take place.
Purchase the book on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Target
A World Without Soil: The Past, Present, and Precarious Future of the Earth Beneath Our Feet
by Jo Handelsman
A celebrated biologist’s manifesto addressing a soil loss crisis accelerated by poor conservation practices and climate change.
Purchase the book at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Target.
Videos
Is the Maya Forest Garden the key to sustainable agriculture? by Odyssey Earth (8 minutes)
El Pilar Archaeological Reserve for Maya Flora and Fauna by
MesoAmerican Research Center (9 minutes)
El Pilar: Preserving the Maya Legacy by University of California, Santa Barbara (19 minutes)
Counter Mapping by Go Project Films (10 minutes)
Partner Organizations
A outreach-based non-profit focused on preserving the Maya forest as a cultural resource of global significance
A research base that seeks to develop a broad understanding of the people, cultures, and environment of the Maya Forest
Related Organizations
A nonprofit bridging the gap between Indigenous/peasant farmer communities and media
A Maya-led nonprofit improving the health and wellbeing of Maya people in Nebraska and the United States through community development strategies
A hub for communities, producers, and organizations
across Nebraska to collaborate and build a unified and
intersectional regenerative movement