In search of self-sustaining management models for the Pacaya National Park

Promoting conservation, as well as valuing the ecosystem services that the natural area of the Pacaya National Park provides, are some of the objectives for which the Municipality of San Vicente Pacaya and the National Institute of Forests (INAB) signed a collaboration. This signing makes both entities co-administrators of the park.

“We will provide technical assistance to local populations, to implement practices for the sustainable management of the forests present in the area,” said Mártir Vásquez, deputy manager of INAB.

The agreement contemplates the design of technical and financial mechanisms or instruments that allow efficient administration and self-sustainable management of the park. It also seeks to promote conservation, the valuation of ecosystem services and the ecological restoration of its degraded areas and the promotion of sustainable tourism.

View of Laguna Calderas, in San Vicente Pacaya. Photo: Jorge Rodríguez/Viatori

The Pacaya Volcano and Laguna de Calderas National Park is a protected area declared in 1963, making it one of the oldest nationally. The responsibility for the administration of this protected area was granted by means of a Government Agreement to the National Forest Directorate in 1963, a function that is currently carried out by INAB.

This park is located in the municipalities of San Vicente Pacaya and Amatitlán. INAB, with the aim of having a strengthened partner to support the administration of this important protected area, has for several years carried out the administration together with the Municipality of San Vicente Pacaya.