GUATEMALA

After a 36 year Civil War from 1960-1996, rural and Indigenous Guatemalans are still fighting to rebuild their lives. Hundreds of thousands of Indigenous people—forcibly displaced from their territories in the last two decades—are building a locally-led movement for social and environmental justice. In 2012, TWP began a partnership with the Asociación de Forestería Comunitaria de Guatemala Utz Ché (meaning “good tree” in the Mayan language K’iche’) to strengthen marginalized communities’ ability to protect the environment, and envision a new future in the Southeast.

TWP and Utz Che’ believe that local people are best positioned to address their own needs. Incorporating Mayan traditional and cultural knowledge, TWP and Utz Che’ have developed the Agricultura Familiar Sostenible program that includes farmer-to-farmer learning exchanges to promote the conservation of local agrobiodiversity, use of heirloom species, and sharing of best practices in forestry and agroforestry. Because of our collective efforts, Utz Che’ was recently named a 2020 Equator Prize Recipient, and winner of the 2021 USAID RISE Challenge. 

Collectively, we have helped Indigenous communities in Guatemala’s Southeast protect their territories and become more self-sustainable!

How we achieve locally-driven solutions:  

  • Long-term relationships with Indigenous communities in Guatemala’s Southeast to support their efforts to recover traditional farming practices and heirloom crops.

  • Supporting Indigenous-led forest conservation of 74,000 hectares through our partnership with Utz Che’ since 2012.

  • Reduction of forest fuelwood use through the installation of improved, locally-manufactured biomass cookstoves. 

  • Responding to an increase in basic needs deriving from environmental crises such as the 2018 Volcán Fuego eruption, the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, and 2020 twin hurricanes Eta and Iota.

  • Addressing the root causes of gender-based violence and environmental degradation in Guatemala through empowerment in community forestry, agroecology and collective healing working with 400 women in ten regions. 

Now is your chance to make a difference.