Preserving the Maya Biosphere Reserve

Preserving the Maya Biosphere Reserve Flores, Guatemala Correspondent: Flores gateway to the Guatemalan rainforest once the center of Mayan civilization. Beyond Flores diverging forest of Patan an area of great biodiversity. Patan covers almost a third of Guatemala. Measure for Measure It has less than 3% of its population that recently is to colonize the countries final frontier have led to waves the settlers invading the forest and clearing enormous tracks of land. Equator Initiative Award Winner In Guatemala it’s estimated that 65% of fertile is dominated by 2% of the population To halt the destruction the government declared much of Patan a by a bio reserve concessions for extracting forest resources were to be granted only to commercial interests but fearing for their livelihoods the communities formed ACOFOP which cut a deal with the government to reverse the policy. Marcedonio Cortave (ACOFOP): One of the conditions of the agreement to give concessions to community living in the multiple used zone was that they should preserve the environment that they have traditionally inhabited for decades. Correspondent: Tree survey s were carried out to help locals manage the forest sustainably. ACOFOP exceeded in gaining concessions combined team communities and this victory combined with their forest management skills that led ACOFOP to win recognition from the equator initiative. Manuelantonio Mamzanero (San Andres Concession): The community of San Andres is applying for this concession in order to preserve the forest. We are using 900 hectares of forest per year which will then be left to regenerate over 40 years so the impact will be minimal as we are only taking approximately 2 trees per hectare that is minimal. Correspondent: Timber is certified for smart label guarantying it is being harvested in an ecologic – way the benefits local communities. This timber yard is owned by Agua Verde. This is the largest community-managemed certified natural forest in the world. Freddy Molina Sanchinelli (Arbol Verde Community Group): Well one of the most important achievements of our community enterprise has been the involvement of our community in the conservation of the forest. We’ve improved on farming techniques and we’ve also improved our control of forest fires. The main goal of our organization is to improve our members quality of life. Correspondent: off cuts from the timber yard are used by local cottage industries that profit from the tourist trade. In many remote forest communities none timber forest products are also used to earn precious income. 16000 people benefit from sustainable uses of forest resources another 50000 benefit indirectly Marcedonio Cortave (ACOFOP): Another important achievement has been to change the attitude of peasants and indigenous people so that they value the forest. Many people that used to be involved in the legally exploiting the forest and now involved in sustainably managing the forest.