Guatemalan Leaders visit Chiquibul

On the 25th and 26th of February a visit was conducted by alcaldes from Melchor de Mencos, Poptun, Dolores and San Luis to the Chiquibul forest. Each one of the alcaldes were accompanied by 2-3 other councilors. The visitors visited Caracol, an illegal logging site, and a xate trail used by Guatemalan nationals. The visit was coordinated by FCD as part of building awareness of the challenges faced.

The overnight was spent at Las Cuevas. Prior to returning a special session was held with the leaders where it was agreed for FCD to arrange a working session with OAS in order to learn more about the Adjacency Zone and the confidence building measures. The leaders also agreed to arrange meetings with other local leaders and expose them more to the trans-boundary problems with the purpose for them to be able to dissuade community members from further destruction of the Chiquibul forest. Overall the leaders were extremely open to collaboration and agreed that protecting Chiquibul is important to their communities as they directly benefit from its conservation due to the water resources being used.