The Mayan Culture Bioregion Project
The Mayan Bioregion as proof of concept.
The Mayan Bioregion: Over the last few years, we have walked the Mayan territory, built local trust with families and councils, supported ceremonies and gatherings, documented living wisdom with care, and developed physical and digital library nodes. The Mayan Bioregion shows that when knowledge, land, and community are treated as one living system, education, culture, art, and ecology begin to regenerate together. What we learn here becomes the foundation for other bioregions around the world.
We recognize and support Wisdom Keepers and Guardians of the Mayan Nature.
Through events, solstice gatherings, equinox ceremonies, worldwide pilgrimages, and council fire circles, Elders, knowledge-keepers, and community leaders from many native nations have come together to listen, share, and build trust. These encounters have created a strong network of relationships across the Mayan territories and cultures, allowing us to weave alliances that are rooted in reciprocity, union, reconciliation, and peace.
The continuity of bioregional, cultural, and artistic work in the region has opened the path for collaborative projects, the development of bioregional learning spaces, and the strengthening of local leadership. The Mayan Bioregion has shown that when nature, ceremony, community governance, and knowledge preservation walk together, it becomes possible to create agile structures that are ethical, resilient, and guided by the wisdom of the land.
Jaguar and Quetzal Mayan Routes
Walking with our Elder Mayan Chiefs
The Jaguar Route and the Quetzal Route connect key territories across the Mayan World, weaving together Mexico and Guatemala through landscape, memory, and continuity. The Jaguar Route follows the path of the ancient Mayan lowlands and highlands across Palenque, Chiapas, the Yucatán Peninsula, Campeche, Tabasco, and Quintana Roo, honoring sacred sites, communities, and ecological and biocultural corridors.
From this pathway, the journey continues into the Quetzal Route, entering Guatemaya through Petén, the highlands, and ceremonial territories surrounding Tikal and neighboring cities. The Quetzal represents air, breath, and freedom — the spiritual dimension of knowledge that travels across borders while remaining deeply rooted in place. Together, both routes form a living circuit: from Palenque to Tikal, from forest to highlands, from jaguar to quetzal. Along the way, we listen to communities, support local leaders, and strengthen connections among diverse Native Nations who walk with shared responsibility for the land.
The Mayan Bioregion is our living proof of concept — the first territory where our vision has taken root in a complete and beautiful way. For years we have walked the land, listened to Elders, built relationships, created learning spaces, organized gatherings, and developed the Official Mayan Bioregion Site and the Mayan Library as living centers of knowledge. Here, ancestral wisdom meets careful technology, ceremony meets documentation, and communities guide the process. The Mayan Bioregion shows that our model works: Elders are supported, libraries grow, youth participate, and culture remains alive, shared, and protected — offering a dignified path forward for future generations and for other bioregions to follow.
Mayan Elder Chiefs
La Ventana, Palenque
Wisdome Keeper
Chief Elder Adriana Álvaréz
La Ventana, in Palenque, Chiapas, guided by Elder Adriana Álvarez, is a living sanctuary for culture, ecology, and community learning. On more than 50 hectares (approximately 124 acres), she has spent decades protecting native forest, water, soil, and wildlife, cultivating a space where nature and ceremony remain in relationship. Native International is supporting La Ventana to become an official Agile Bioregional Center for the Mayan Bioregion. In this place, Elders can teach, young people can learn, and communities can gather to document knowledge, restore ecosystems, and build long-term projects rooted in care for the land and future generations.
Guatemaya City
Wisdom-Keeper
Chief Elder Nana Mima
The Guatemaya Region, guided by Elder Chief Nana Mima, serves as a center for community learning, cultural continuity, and coordination of regional projects. From here, we support Elders, organize gatherings, develop libraries, and strengthen bioregional leadership through ongoing collaboration with communities, youth, and cultural guardians. As a living hub in the heart of Guatemaya, it demonstrates how spiritual heritage, organization, and technology can work together in the service of future generations, offering a model of how knowledge can be preserved, activated, and shared with dignity and responsibility.
Tulum, Quintana Roo
Agile Bioregion Center
Chief José Sánchez
Tulum functions as a strategic Agile Bioregional Center coordinated by Librarian and Project Officer Joséf Sánchez. Positioned between the Caribbean, the Mayan forest, and major transportation routes, it offers ideal connectivity for coordinating work across the Mayan Bioregion.
From Tulum, Native International supports elders, organizes gatherings, strengthens partnerships, and coordinates research and logistics throughout Mexico and Guatemaya. It serves as an operational hub where ancestral knowledge meets contemporary tools, linking coastal and inland communities, cultural stewards, and learning projects within a growing bioregional network.
Jaguar & Quetzal Routes
The Worldwide Library Initiative is a living global network dedicated to preserving, organizing, and transmitting the knowledge systems of Native Peoples. It is not only an archive — it is an active biocultural infrastructure where ancestral science, natural medicine, languages, art, governance practices, cosmology, and ecological wisdom are documented with dignity and shared with ethical protections. Designed as both physical community libraries and digital learning spaces, the Worldwide Library supports Elders as primary knowledge authorities while connecting researchers, youth, artists, and educators across regions.
The Mayan Library
The Mayan Library has become a living space for knowledge, community learning, and cultural continuity across the Mayan Bioregion. Over the past years, we have used the library to document ceremonies, record Elder teachings, organize gatherings, share research, and connect communities across borders. What began as a small experimental platform has now grown into a vibrant network of more than 1,000 members from around the world — people who study, support, and honor Mayan wisdom. The Mayan Library is not only an archive; it is an active ecosystem where knowledge circulates, grows, and remains protected for future generations.
