1,700 new sustainable forest management projects in 2020 in Guatemala

Story by: Jorge Rodriguez Photography by: CONAP Guatemala Translated by: Carlos Duarte jue 14, Ene 2021

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has hit all the financial and productive sectors of the entire planet, that does not mean that we cannot talk about some achievements in some sectors. With this intention, the National Forest Institute of Guatemala (INAB), announced that it made 18 disbursements of the forest incentive programs, of which 11 correspond to PINPEP and seven to PROBOSQUE, through which the establishment, maintenance and management of sustainable development of 47,353 projects, equivalent to 279,258.98 hectares of forest.

According to the press release issued by the state entity, the departments of Guatemala where these forestry projects are located are “Petén, Alta Verapaz, Baja Verapaz, Huehuetenango and Quiché”, and highlights that “they are projects focused on the establishment and maintenance of plantations forestry, agroforestry systems and the management of natural forest for the purposes of production, protection and restoration ”.

In 2020, despite the pandemic, 1,700 sustainable forest management projects were certified. Photo: CONAP

Herles Martínez, PROBOSQUE national coordinator, added that this year this program incorporated 1,700 new projects, equivalent to 27,300 hectares under management, and that it meant a state investment of Q61.8 million (US $ 8 million). During 2020, a total of 7,200 projects were maintained, or in other words, around 112 thousand hectares of forest recovered and under management.

These new projects, however, only represent a little more than 50% of the new projects that the INAB estimated to certify for this year, but which, due to the pandemic, could not reach the estimate at the beginning of the year. “In January we made the projection of the demand for projects, and we estimated in terms of investment that the demand was in Q282 million in projects, around 10,200 projects, including new and in the maintenance phase.” Martinez explained. “However, already in the implementation we realized that the demand for new projects, which was estimated at 3,100, decreased significantly,” he added.

Despite this delay, of all the candidates to be incentivized that were analyzed, close to 45% remained on the threshold of being included in the PROBOSQUE program, and their certification will be completed in early 2021.

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