With the Archaeological Park and Ruins of Quirigua, a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site, and its national tree, Ceiba sp., the fifth blog post is in Guatemala. The name of the project is Chimaltenango Restoration Initiative, in Guatemala, Central Highlands.
The type of activities supported in the Chimaltenango department were agroforestry, forest plantation, forest management for conservation and production, defined and designed according to the existing conditions in the forestlands or plots where restoration was carried out. Forestry plantations with mixed species (pines, cypress and alders) and implementation of agroforestry systems (annual crops and timber species) were the main categories proposed for forest landscape restoration (FLR) in the region.
However, bureaucracy related to forest incentive programs, costs of registered forestry consultants, and management during the implementation of restoration project were some of the problems that discouraged and made farmers to use their own financial resources to implement the restoration activities. So, strengthening the relationship and information between government agencies and organizations with farmers is important for the development of restoration projects to facilitate the collaboration among all stakeholders.
The purpose of the restoration actions in the Chimaltenango landscape was to improve people’s livelihoods by producing timber and firewood, conserving natural resources, water recharge, and sustainable tourism. In addition, Guatemala has a new Forest Law in place with forest incentives of around $50 million annually committed for the next 30 years. There is a Forest Restoration Roundtable with different stakeholders and a FLR National Strategy.
Guatemala has committed with 1.2 million ha by 2020 to the Bonn Challenge – a global effort to bring 150 million ha of the world’s deforested and/or degraded areas into restoration by 2020 and 350 million ha by 2030.
To find out more about Guatemala, watch their interview on the side-event Forest Landscape Restoration Implementation: Progress on the Ground during the XXV IUFRO World Congress 2019.
Check out the other countries to know more about forest landscape restoration.
Coming up next…
Ghana: communication with stakeholders helps to keep them engaged and active in forest restoration projects.