ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses transboundarities in the Maya Forest waterlands. Transboundarity is often understood as connectivity beyond human-created political borders, especially in social and political sciences. This notion has been challenged by the strategy of transboundary conservation, as it is the case of the Maya Forest, which extends beyond political borders to safeguard the connectivity of ecosystems and species as a basis for biodiversity conservation. However, a dilemma emerges when transboundarity is merely understood as a human-centered activity related to jurisdictional divisions on the one hand, and political borders – often formed of rivers and waterlands – as fixed elements on the other. The Maya Forest Waterlands challenge these perceptions by showing fluid international borders and ecosystem and species connectivity beyond political borders. By exploring the political borders of the Maya Forest formed of rivers and waterlands, analyzing how waters and borders entangle, and examining connectivities within the Maya Forest transboundary conservation projects, this chapter calls for a rethink of transboundarities. It shows how the most biodiverse areas may be formed by so-far hidden forest–water–land interfaces, which are also fluid, political borders and ecosystemic borderlands.
