The impact of Maya civilization is often hidden, but one recent study shows that the Classic Maya had a huge impact on the forests of the Yucatan.

A recent study by Anabel Ford, an anthropologist specializing in “historical ecology” has revealed that much of the Yucatan, once the Mayan Empire, was once heavily ecologically managed. Apparently, after studying the ruin site of El Pilar on the Belize Guatemala border, Ford determined that much of the jungle vegetation is not peak forest. In other words the jungle that covers the Yucatan is not what you would expect if the it were not heavily managed for a very long period of time. According to Ford one of the main indicators of this hypothesis is the high concentration of “economic” vegetation or plants that were once of economic value. Find Anabel Ford’s report from 2004 Human Impacts on the Maya Forest

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