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China Dialogue | 25 June 2021
San Juan La Noria: the community abandoned to palm oil development
The village in Guatemala is surrounded by oil palm plantations but residents feel none of the benefits
by Marvin Del Cid, Sonny Figueroa
There is only one road in and out of San Juan La Noria. This community of 2,600 people, located 150 kilometres southeast of the Guatemalan capital, is almost completely engulfed by rows and rows of oil palms.
In the 1970s, when the village was founded, San Juan La Noria comprised around 20 houses. Its inhabitants worked in agriculture, including livestock and nearby banana farms.
Then, in the late 1980s, palm oil came to Guatemala’s Pacific slope, with growers making the switch from banana to oil palm as it was seen as more profitable. San Juan La Noria was chosen for its rich soil, wide open land and abundant water supply.
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