Communities of the Trifinio Region participate in workshops to strengthen sustainable fire management

• Research findings were shared and community inputs were generated for a regional fire management proposal in the Trifinio Region.

Communities of the Trifinio Region participated in outreach sessions and participatory workshops on fire use and its governance in the territory. The meetings were held in the municipalities of San José La Arada (Guatemala), Ocotepeque (Honduras), and Metapán (El Salvador), bringing together community actors from the three countries.

During the sessions, the results of the master’s thesis by Agostina Ferro, a graduate of CATIE (Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center), were presented. The research compiled perceptions and experiences of communities, formal institutions, and non-governmental organizations regarding fire use and fire management in the region.

“These workshops were an opportunity to share findings, discuss current practices, and work with participatory tools that helped identify strengths, needs, and opportunities related to sustainable fire management. This process aims to lay the groundwork for a community-based fire management proposal that contributes to reducing risks, preventing forest fires, and promoting safer agricultural practices in the region,” Ferro stated.

The workshops included exclusively the participation of local communities, who are key actors for understanding both traditional and current fire uses and for co-creating context-appropriate alternatives for responsible territorial management. According to the research presented, advancing toward a regional approach to fire management will strengthen preventive actions and improve coordination between community and institutional actors.

These activities were carried out within the framework of the project Resilient and Biodiverse Landscapes of Northern Mesoamerica, funded through the Biodiverse Landscapes Fund (BLF) and implemented by Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and CATIE, in collaboration with the Trinational Commission of the Trifinio Plan (CTPT) and various local partners.

Likewise, the research that informed these workshops was financed by the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI) – Seed Grant, Tropical Forests in the Americas: Transdisciplinary Approaches for Environmental Transformations, expanding the scope of the research and strengthening the integration between science, territory, and community governance.

As a next step, a workshop is planned for institutions involved in fire management, where both the thesis results and the inputs generated during the community sessions will be presented. This space will be key to integrating technical and community perspectives into a comprehensive fire management proposal for the Trifinio Region.