Organisation’s aim: To protect the integrity and beauty of nature through the creation and management of protected areas, the sustainable use of natural resources, and improving quality of life for local people.
Partner History
FUNDAECO works to protect and manage reserves throughout Guatemala. They work to balance the needs of local communities and wildlife in jointly agreed land use plans, and this helps to ensure that agricultural practices around reserves are sustainable. FUNDAECO is a founding member of the National Association of Environmentalists (ASOREMA) and the Tri-National Alliance for the Conservation of the Gulf of Honduras (TRIGOH).
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.
Together we continue to purchase and protect some of the last remaining wetlands and tropical forests in Caribbean Guatemala. In Autumn 2017 we started working to create a new core reserve area in the Sierra Santa Cruz, through our autumn match funding appeal.
WLT also supports FUNDAECO through the Keepers of the Wild appeal, which funds rangers on our partners’ reserves.
Other projects and activities
- Creation and management of protected areas throughout Guatemala to safeguard the country’s varied habitats
- Extensive community work, which involves helping with the legalisation of indigenous lands, assisting with sustainable agricultural practices, and empowering local people through their Rights to Reproductive Health programme
- Running education projects with a focus on inner city areas, where they have a park to show the importance of conservation
Awards and Achievements
2007: They obtained the Fundacion 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 18 years monitoring birds in Caribbean Guatemala – the most continuous programme in Latin America