Guatemala’s Biocultural Corridors Advance Toward More Resilient Management with a New Participatory Methodology

• Over four days, 40 representatives from public institutions and managers of biological and biocultural corridors developed a roadmap to strengthen conservation, climate change adaptation, and community well-being.

From July 20 to 23, CATIE (Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center), through its Climate Action Unit, and Guatemala’s Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARN) brought together 42 representatives from 17 institutions and organizations for the workshop “Participatory Mapping: A Tool for the Management of Biocultural Corridors.”

The activity was held within the framework of the Biocultural Resilience project, funded by the Global Centre on Biodiversity for Climate (GCBC) through the United Kingdom Government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). Its purpose was to integrate technical and scientific knowledge with local knowledge to improve the management of Guatemala’s biological and biocultural corridors.

During the first day, participants included representatives from government institutions such as the National Council for Protected Areas (CONAP), the National Forest Institute (INAB), and the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARN); academia (CATIE and CDC-CECON USAC); civil society organizations (ARNPG, ASOVERDE, Calmecac, Defensores de la Naturaleza, Vivamos Mejor, and CDRO); the FEDECOVERA cooperative; the Anacafé coffee association; the ADIMAM association of municipalities; the regional organization Plan Trifinio; and managers of the Bosque Biológico Mesoamericano de Baja Verapaz, Sierra Yalijux, del Café, Quetzaltenango, Bosque Seco Ostúa, Candacuchex, Zunil-Atitlán, Acatenango, Volcán de Ipala, and Bocas del Polochic biological and biocultural corridors.

The gathering gave each corridor an opportunity to share its experiences in territorial management and subsequently work with participatory mapping tools to identify livelihoods, climate and non-climate threats, and adaptation measures in each corridor. One of the highlights was a presentation by Licero Camey of INAB, who emphasized the value of ancestral knowledge in ecosystem conservation and the sustainable management of Maya territories. Pamela Katic of the University of Greenwich also delivered a presentation on the development of biocultural protocols.

“A biological corridor only has a future when stakeholders, nature, culture, and production systems move in the same direction,” said Claudia García of the Guatemalan Association of Private Natural Reserves (ARNPG), emphasizing the importance of coordinated efforts to ensure the conservation and sustainable development of these territories.

As a result, the workshop produced a methodological framework validated across four dimensions—ecology and connectivity, socioeconomic aspects, biocultural aspects, and governance and facilitation—as well as a roadmap to train regional coordinators, pilot the methodology in the corridors that participated in the validation process, and refine the tools based on feedback received during the workshop.