Sustainable forest use and subsistance hunting for indigenous Maya-Q’eqchi’ communities, Lachuá, Guatemala

The Ecoregion Lachua, a vast tropical wetland area, is one of the most biodiversity-rich regions of Guatemala inhabited by many species of endangered wildlife and 49 indigenous Maya-Q´eqchi´. Many local people are survivors of Guatemala’s 36 year civil war and were displaced from their original lands. Traditionally self-reliant, the Maya-Q´eqchi´ have a subsistence economy based mainly on agriculture and the use of wildlife and other forest products. Wildlife hunting is an ancestral multi-purpose practice that provides quality protein, eliminates problem animals that damage crops and favours social cohesion.

Since 2002, wildlife biologist, Marleny Rosales-Meda, leads a team working on Guatemala’s first long-term study of subsistence hunting in the unique Maya-Q´eqchi´ culture. The team has carried out key ethno-biological research which has revealed that hunting, done in the traditional way, favours an appropriate use of wildlife. She believes that this understanding of wise-use can be nurtured to develop effective conservation approaches in the region at a time when people are losing touch with their indigenous roots. Currently, changes due to the Central America Free Commerce Treaty have jeopardised traditional ways of life and increased the demand for resource extraction and land selling.

In 2008, Marleny launched a unique Popular Environmental-Cultural Education Program (PEPARQ) to educate and create awareness among local people about the value and importance of natural resources to generate positive changes in their attitudes and socio-environmental values and increase their skills for conservation and sustainable management of wildlife; integrating and linking ancestral Maya-Q´eqchi´ wisdom related to the responsible and respectful use of nature. A key aim of this program is also to reinstate methods of hunting – such as avoiding species during their breeding seasons – that are sustainable in the long term. Local people are being encouraged to share their knowledge, spiritual practices and celebrate their indigenous identity.

In 2010, Marleny and her team founded the NGO ORCONDECO (Organization for Nature Conservation and Community Development) to strengthen and give continuance to their long-term work. Thanks to its positive results, the process that started with 14 communities has now been broadened to 64 communities and 56 education establishments from three regions that neighbour Laguna Lachua National Park. Her work has also earned strong community and political support and positively impacted the national legislation. The Environmental-Cultural Education School Program (PEACE) has become the first contextualized and locally-suited effort of its kind in Guatemala to obtain the certification and endorsement of the National Ministries of Education and Environment. In addition, the new Cynegetic Region II she proposed as a result of the long-term subsistence hunting was legally approved as an amendment of the General Hunting Law. This new region guides and regulates hunting activities in four departments of Guatemala, based on the wildlife reproduction calendar, hunting caps/quantities & bans established in Lachua through their applied participative research process. Her ongoing work seeks to broaden, institutionalize and ensure the long-term sustainability of both of these pioneer conservation processes with cultural pertinence.

Marleny’s work is helping create a future where indigenous people are proud of their identity, aware of their rights and actively in control of their land´s management. Their innovative pilot programs contribute to the protection of the National Park and local livelihoods by training people in resource management, whilst improving their ability to work with government authorities. Inevitably, change is coming to Guatemala, but thanks to Marleny and her team, the Maya-Q´eqchi´ are increasingly equipped to face the future together.

2018 Continuation Funding

Empowering young conservation leaders, Guatemala
£70,000 over two years

With WFN support Marleny Rosales-Meda and her NGO ORCONDECO have led two participatory programmes tackling threats of unsustainable hunting and empowering indigenous communities to conserve their natural environment with the introduction of Guatemala’s first government approved environmental education programme. Thanks to this work, overhunting is no longer a threat in the project’s priority conservation landscape in the Lachua Ecoregion – a Ramsar site.

However, the long term sustainability of their operation’s impact has been threatened by a lack of employment opportunities for young community members, resulting in migration to cities and even as far as the USA. Continuation Funding will enable ORCONDECO to build youth leadership through applied socio-environmental alternatives, establish 10 learning spaces for training and innovation in sustainable production initiatives and engage further youth leaders in their long term sustainable livelihoods programme. In doing so Marleny will build vital local capacity to manage conservation projects and empower future leaders to protect this important area and its biodiversity.

2025 Continuation Funding

Safeguarding Guatemala’s ancestral rainforest

Northwestern Guatemala’s Ancestral Rainforests Landscape represents one of Central America’s last remaining tropical rainforest strongholds, spanning 149,500 ha of critical habitat that sustains over 700 wildlife species. At its heart lies the Ramsar-designated Ecoregion Lachua, protected for generations by Maya-Q’eqchi’ communities whose traditional stewardship has proven essential to conservation success. Sadly, this irreplaceable landscape faces mounting threats from oil palm expansion, hydroelectric megaprojects, and illegal resource extraction.

For over two decades, ORCONDECO has partnered with Mayan communities to develop grassroots conservation strategies that blend ancestral wisdom with scientific knowledge, protecting both biodiversity and cultural heritage. The organisation established Atz’umak, Guatemala’s first Indigenous-led Transformative Conservation Centre, which now serves as a national reference for grassroots conservation and climate resilience. Through participatory training programmes, ORCONDECO has empowered young Maya-Q’eqchi’ adults as conservation leaders, with 50% of participants elected to formal leadership roles. Community engagement is central to the success of these conservation efforts, having secured 62 local conservation agreements and helped establish Cynegetic Region II, a landmark policy protecting wildlife across 2.3 million ha – nearly a quarter of Guatemala’s territory.

Using Continuation Funding, Marleny’s work will focus on supporting a vital initiative that was halted when U.S. government funding was unexpectedly cut. The project will strengthen Indigenous conservation leadership across priority zones, restore at least 10,000 ha of forest and wetland habitats, and expand sustainable livelihoods that reduce environmental degradation while increasing community resilience to climate change.