Our Conservation Coast project in the Guatemalan Caribbean protects forests which are a critical migratory corridor for biodiversity, including hundreds of bird species, connecting North and South America. This small piece of land is home to an incredible 7-10% of the world’s known bird species.
The project is the world’s largest grouped forest-based carbon project; hundreds of diverse landowners (including governmental, NGO, private and community) have joined to protect 675 parcels of forest making up a total of 59,941 hectares. A truly landscape-scale and community-based project. Activities on the ground to develop sustainable livelihoods include working with local farmers on technical assistance, agriculture inputs and route to market for a variety of sustainably produced commodities such as spices and jungle leaves, as well as developing this beautiful coastline into a thriving eco-tourism hub. The project is critical to local water supply, as municipal water comes from the watershed protected by our project. In addition, protecting forests along coastlines also can help in coastal defence and disaster risk reduction for local communities.
This project is implemented on the ground by the Guatemalan NGO, Fundaeco.
We track seven impact areas across all of our projects, and each project also produces sustainable commodities. Below are the targets for 2021 for the Conservation Coast project:
4.4 million tonnes of CO2 emissions avoided
59,941 hectares of threatened forest protected to date, with a target to increase
30 High Conservation Value Species, including Jaguar, Baird’s Tapir and West Indian Manatee
7 sustainable businesses such as an ecotourism travel hub
€7.5 million contributed to local economy
Cardamom, xate (jungle leaf), pepper, rambutan, lychee, cinnamon, timber and ecotourism
The Conservation Coast project helps to achieve a number of the UN Sustainable Development Goals:
