Working towards concerted, sustainable forest management in Guatemala

Science at work 9 October 2025
CIRAD is coordinating the ConForMa project, in partnership with the forest community association Acofop. The project, funded by the Fonds français pour l’environnement mondial (FFEM), aims to secure the future of community forest management in Guatemala and promote it on the global stage. CIRAD CEO Elisabeth Claverie de Saint Martin was in Guatemala from 16 to 20 September for the project launch.
CIRAD CEO Elisabeth Claverie de Saint Martin and Macédoine Cortave, Director of the Petén community forest association (ACOFOP), sign the CIRAD- ACOFOP bilateral agreement supporting the ConForMa project on 18 September, in the heart of the Maya Biosphere Reserve in the Petén region © CIRAD

CIRAD CEO Elisabeth Claverie de Saint Martin and Macédoine Cortave, Director of the Petén community forest association (ACOFOP), sign the CIRAD- ACOFOP bilateral agreement supporting the ConForMa project on 18 September, in the heart of the Maya Biosphere Reserve in the Petén region © CIRAD

The forests of Guatemala have seen substantial deforestation in recent years. In 2016, Guatemala had 3 574 244 hectares of forest cover, the equivalent of 33% of its total area, but it then lost 149 000 hectares in just four years (up to 2020). That deforestation was the result of forest fires and land use changes for livestock production and industrial farming, or the effects of climate change or illicit land use.

The situation has been made worse by the poverty in which the country's population lives, and by historic inequalities resulting from long periods of discrimination and racism towards its indigenous communities.

Indigenous knowledge is central to the fight against deforestation

The ConForMa project (CONcerted future FORest management: the example of the Selva MAya and forest communities in Petén, Guatemala) is based in the heart of the Selva Maya, a forest that covers 14 million hectares, is the second largest rainforest in the Americas and spans three countries: Guatemala, Mexico and Belize. The project will be conducted within the Maya Biosphere Reserve, the Guatemalan part of the Selva Maya. It aims to promote community forest management (CFM) as a means of forest and forest resource conservation and concerted, sustainable management.

Under community forest management contracts, the Guatemalan government hands over management certain forest zones to indigenous peoples and local communities. Those groups then have the right to use the natural resources in those zones within a strict legal framework drafted by the national council for protected areas in Guatemala (CONAP), and to practise agriculture for their own consumption.

The model has existed in Guatemala for 35 years, is part of the peace agreements reached following a period of complex domestic conflict, and has proved itself: deforestation rates within forest concessions are practically nil.
 
The ConForMa project has three specific objectives:

  1. To secure the future of the CFM model through innovation and adaptation to global change.
  2. To build effective consultation between the different territorial stakeholders (government, agricultural players, indigenous and local communities, etc).
  3. Promote CFM on a global scale.

Community forest management is an overall approach that reconciles conservation by means of sustainable natural and cultural resource use, the building of livelihoods and local skills, and greater consideration of local communities' rights and know-how in order to tackle global challenges. In promoting CFM, the project is a vector against deforestation and exclusion of local people.
Marie Ange Ngo Bieng
Project coordinator, ecologist with CIRAD's Forests and Societies research unit

The project, which is scheduled to run for 3.5 years (2025-2028), is funded by the Fonds français pour l’environnement mondial (FFEM) and supported by the Ministry for Ecological Transition (MTE), is coordinated by CIRAD with the Petén forest community association (Acofop) and local, regional and international partners (CATIE, Rainforest Alliance, CEMCA, ATIBT). It is also supported by the French diplomatic mission to Guatemala and the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE), and is part of the Team Europe Initiative Global Gateway "Petén mas sostenible" EU action programme in Guatemala. 

See also