June - July 2002

New & Notable on www.eco-index.org: Certified, Community Forests in Guatemala

Project Name: Strengthening and Meeting the Preconditions and Conditions of Certification in a Natural Community Forest in the Petén

Managing organization, country: Fundación Naturaleza Para la Vida, Guatemala

Project director: Gustavo Pinelo

Synopsis: This project aims to help 12 community groups meet the sustainable forestry management preconditions and conditions set by the evaluation team of SmartWood (a program of the Rainforest Alliance and a Forest Stewardship Council accredited certifier) in 822,250 acres (332,895 hectares) of natural community forest in the Petén, in northern Guatemala. Fundación Naturaleza Para la Vida will continue assistance, begun in 2001, to six forestry communities; help another six communities meet the requirements of SmartWood's "good forestry management" certification; and enable 11 more communities to retain certification.

Annual budget & donors: $ 50,000.00 (400,000 quetzales) from World Wildlife Fund

Lessons learned: "Beneficiaries must realize from the beginning that they are directly responsible for the completion of the project conditions, and that they will be the ones affected if these conditions are not met. The support provided by the project is precisely that -- support. No progress will be made if the beneficiaries themselves do not move the project forward."

Contacts:

Fundación Naturaleza Para la Vida
Calzada Virgilio Rodríguez Macal 8-54
zona 1
Santa Elena, Flores
Petén, Guatemala
tel: 502/926-0707
fax: 502/926-1043
npv@concyt.gob.gt
www.npv.org.gt

Read more about this project on the Eco-Index:
http://www.eco-index.org/search/results.cfm?ProjectID=322