The Maya Leaders' Alliance was formed in 1999. The Maya Leaders is comprised of the Toledo Maya Cultural Council (TMCC), the Q'eqchi' Council of Belize (KCB), the Toledo Alcaldes Association (TAA) and the Toledo Maya Women's Council (TMWC). The president of each representing organization or Council makes up the Alliance.

The purpose of the MLA is to monitor development in the Toledo District. These are joint projects doen by the MLA:

The thirty-six Maya communities are the home of approximately 11,000 Q'eqchi' and Mopan Mayas living in the Toledo district. Our communities are are situated in the foothills of the Maya Mountains, and on the lower lying lands between the foothills and the coast. Most are located near one of the river systems that flow from the interior to the sea. Each community is comprised of specific living areas for our homes and gardens, agricultural landsfor our crops and livestock, and outlying areas that are used for hunting, fishing and gathering palnts and other natural materials. When all of our community lands are added together, they comprise approximately 765 square miles of contiguous territory.

Many of our communities are quite old while others have been established more recently. When we as Q'eqchi' or Mopan look at a map, we do not say that "this is an old or this is a new community." What we see are patterns of land use, settlement and cultural traditions that not only stretch across the landscapes of southern Belize but which also stretch also back through time and link the people of today with our Maya ancestors. As today's Maya we are intensely proud of our past and of the languages, traditions, knowledge and skills that together form our cultural heritage. At the same time we realize that our cultural heritage cannot by itself, be relied on to secure our future as Maya and as citizens of Belize

We have asked the government of Belize to recognize our rights to our ancestral lands in the Toledo District, lands that we still live on and use communally for farming; and to recognize our ights to continue to use other lands for our traditional activities such as hunting, fishing and the gathering of foods, medicinal plants and materials that we use to build our homes and to sustain our culture, and economy. The Maya are not asking for a separate homeland or for special rights that other Belizeans do not have. Nor we are asking for for rights to all lands in the Toledo District. We are simply asking for recognition and protection for our rights to lands where we live and and that we use on a daily basis- for formal, legal recognition of lands that are known to be ours.