Community Forestry in the Maya Biosphere Reserve

Countries:

Guatemala

Start project:

2015

Partners:

Asociacion de Comunidades Forestales de Peten

ICCO Cooperation, with the Mesoamerican Alliance of Peoples and Forests (AMPB), works to strengthen the land rights and forest governance of communities that inhabit the Multiple Use Zone of the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala. These communities have developed an innovative forest management model to create sustainable livelihoods and also, preserve the forests from wild fires, illegal logging and other threats. This project is financed by CLUA with co-financing from ICCO and other partners.

Background

The Mesoamerican Alliance of People and Forest (AMPB) evolved as a platform of indigenous territorial governments and community forestry organizations, and its members represent many of the communities that live on the most densely-forested lands in Mesoamerica.

Association of Forest Communities of Peten (ACOFOP), which implements this project, is one of their members; it is a second level institution made up of 23 community organizations that perform community forestry in 400,000 hectares of forest of the Multiple Use Area of the Maya Biosphere Reserve in the department of Peten, Guatemala. ACOFOP represents the most successful experience of community forestry in Latin America.

This project furthers their rights agenda to land and sustainable use of natural resources, and has specific measures to improve community forestry practices.

Some of the issues that have been strengthened as part of this project are:

- Community forest-industry integration to optimize efficiency in the use of wood;
- International certification and the opening of markets;
- The identification and the gradual development of complementary production alternatives (natural and cultural-tourism, non-timber management, primarily-resources);
- An increase in the level of monetary income of the participants, an issue that has improved their living conditions.