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At our Guatemalan Conservation Coast project, migration season is just coming to a close for the hundreds of bird species that call the forests home on their long biannual journey between North and South America.

The patchwork of forest on the Caribbean coastline, part of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, that our project helps to protect is critical habitat for their great migration. This ‘flyway’ is one of the last remaining healthy forest ecosystems in the region that birds depend on and as a result the area is home to almost 10% of the world’s known bird species. Over 425 bird species thrive in this forest, including rare and endangered species like the Yellow-Headed Amazon, an endangered native parrot. This also includes the 120 migratory bird species that use the forests as their main wintering or transiting habitat.

The biological monitoring team, whose job it is to track the health and numbers of biodiversity in forest areas on the project, recently recorded over 3,000 Broad-winged Hawks, 1,000 Mississippi Kites and over 1,000 Sharp-shinned Hawks in one afternoon. All three of these hawk species were in the middle of their long journey from all over the USA and eastern Canada and would eventually end up as far south as southern Brazil, when they took respite in the conservation areas of our project in Guatemala.  

The diverse, nearly 54,500 hectares of forest landscape that our Guatemalan Conservation Coast project provides habitat for a huge range of species including 30 high conservation value species. This has resulted in the project being awarded gold for biodiversity by the Climate, Community and Biodiversity (CCB) Standard.

Climate finance allows the protection of this landscape through supporting conservation activities, including:

  • Surveillance and law enforcement:Protection and surveillance activities at highly threatened sites are coordinated with local and national authorities and offer legal assistance to communities and individual forest owners fighting illegal activity on their land.
  • Biological monitoring: HCV species health and numbers are tracked in forest areas.
  • Conservation Education: Formal and informal education through organised events, workshops, fairs and exhibitions engage local communities and improve conservation outcomes.

Read more about our Conservation Coast project in Guatemala here