Country:

Guatemala

Region:

Latin America

Date:

2014

Implementor:

Asociación de Comunidades Forestales de Peten (ACOFOP)

Funding Amount:

$73,457

Details:

RRI responded to a time-sensitive opportunity to secure the forest rights of five community organizations with 190,000 hectares of forest in the Multiple Use Zone (MUZ) of the Mayan Biosphere Reserve (MBR) in Guatemala. Since 1994, forest communities in the MRB gained recognition of their rights through community forest concession contracts. According to Guatemala’s Protected Areas regulations, the management units are open for bidding to communities and private industrial actors. Community organizations are required to show proof of their technical capabilities to become legal rights holders and to participate in the negotiation process along with private industry. With the support of the SRM, ACOFOP assisted the community organizations in the preparation of all technical documentation. The technical documentation allowed the possible granting of new concession areas as well as for the monitoring of existing concession contracts.  ACOFOP submitted documentation to the National Protected Area Council (CONAP) for the management plan for the bidding of 191,685 hectares, so they may add new concessions and community partners. CONAP approved a roadmap to grant three new forest community concessions in the MBR to community forest organizations. These concessions will improve the income of at least 150 families in Petén and will increase employment in the forest management sector. Final approval was issued in February 2015. In order to facilitate these concessions, ACOFOP inventoried five forest territories and found that four were productive. It was possible to gather documentation to reclaim 3,500 hectares that third parties had illegally registered within concessions to the communities. CONAP and the Attorney General’s Office received this documentation.