2024 Mesoamerica Program Report

OUR WORK WITH LOCAL PARTNERS

Arboles y Agua para el Pueblo - AAP (El Salvador):  working on community-based and locally managed tree nurseries that house 40,000 native and fruit trees per year, planted by community members on degraded lands protected-area management work within the Apaneca-Ilamatepec Biosphere Reserve, Manufacturing and installing appropriate eco-technologies—dry-composting latrines, rainwater catchment systems clean cookstoves. 

Utz Che’ (Guatemala): working on long-term relationships with Indigenous communities in Guatemala’s Southeast to support their efforts to recover traditional farming practices and heirloom crops, Indigenous-led forest conservation, reduction of forest fuelwood use through the installation of improved, locally-manufactured cookstoves,  and addressing gender-based violence and environmental degradation through empowerment in community forestry, agroecology, and collective healing work.

Fundacion para el Desarrollo y Fortalecimiento de las Organizaciones de Base- FUNDEBASE (Guatemala):  working on long-term relationships with Indigenous communities to support their efforts to improve and expand their diversified gardens, milpa system practices, seed banks, agroforestry system, and the management and production of organic fertilizers. Promoting workshops on nutritional education, using and applying ancestral practices, and learning about the use of productive foods.

Comité Ecológico Aldea de Suyapa - COEAS (Honduras): working on strengthening community-based conservation in the Triquilapa watershed by helping an Indigenous urban community legalize and co-manage their recently declared Wildlife Refuge: Luis Hernán Baca Valladares “Mero”, to reduce deforestation and forest fires through environmental education, community actions, and local collaborations, and leading community-led reforestation with dozens of communities across the country.

Asociación Hondureña para el Desarrollo - AHDESA (Honduras): working on co-designing the improved biomass cookstove, the Justa stove, with over 300,000 units installed to date. Creating jobs through cookstove manufacture and installation, each Justa stove installed puts $10-$20 in stove builders’ pockets (50% women) and employs welders, brickmakers, sheet metal workers, and drivers.

The Mexican Network of Community Forest Organizations - Red MOCAF (Mexico): working on long-term relationships with Indigenous communities in Mexico to support their efforts to recover traditional farming practices and restore degraded lands through community action, promotion, and empowerment of rural and Indigenous communities, focusing on gender equity and inclusion, and youth development.