Mission
In a context of high vulnerability to climate change, we seek to protect natural ecosystems and the environmental services they provide, as well as promote the sustainable development of poor and vulnerable communities in regions of high biodiversity.
FUNDAECO promotes the establishment of protected areas and their participatory management; supports land legalization for communities as well as sustainable economic development activities, and promotes biodiversity conservation through biological research and monitoring, environmental education, and political advocacy.
History
FUNDAECO have worked for 33 years to protect and manage nature reserves throughout Guatemala. They work to balance the needs of local communities and wildlife in jointly agreed land use plans, and helps to ensure that agricultural practices around reserves are sustainable.
FUNDAECO is a founding member of the Guatemalan National Association of Environmentalists (ASOREMA) and the Tri-National Alliance for the Conservation of the Gulf of Honduras (TRIGOH).
FUNDAECO has been expanding its work regions in the country:
Caribbean Coast
Montane forests in the Northern highlands
Metropolitan area in Guatemala city
Cloud forests in the central highlands
South Coast of the country focusing on mangrove restoration
Partnership with WLT
World Land Trust (WLT) was introduced to the Executive Director of FUNDAECO Marco Cerezo, at the 2006 partners’ symposium. FUNDAECO had already received funding from mutual partner IUCN-Netherlands and after discussions, they put in a proposal to WLT for land purchase in Caribbean Guatemala.
WLT and FUNDAECO became official partners in 2008. The first project was the successful purchase of 1500 acres (478 ha) of lowland and inundated tropical rainforest, creating a reserve at Laguna Grande, then after 12 years expanding this Reserve to 5,065 acres (2,050 ha). Together we continue to purchase and protect some of the last remaining wetlands and tropical forests in Caribbean Guatemala.
In 2015 WLT and FUNDAECO started working in the central highlands of the country with two great Nature Reserves La Soledad (656 ha) and San isidro “Yal Unim Yul Witz” (963 ha).
Other Activities
- Creation and management of Protected Areas throughout Guatemala to safeguard the country’s varied habitats
- Creation and management of the largest Nature Reserve Network of Central America in Guatemala
- Extensive community work, which involves helping with the legalisation of indigenous lands, assisting with sustainable agricultural practices
- Empowering local women and girls through their Rights to Reproductive Health programme, that integrates a network of health clinics focus on girls and women
- Running education projects with a focus on inner city areas, where they create and manage urban parks as green public spaces
Awards and Achievements
- 2007: We obtained the BBVA prize for Excellence in the execution of Conservation activities for Latin American biodiversity for their “Sustainable conservation and management of the Caribbean Tropical forests of Guatemala Biological Corridor”
- FUNDAECO have spent 32 years monitoring birds in Caribbean Guatemala – the most continuous programme in Latin America