History

Our story began in 1983

After meeting, Thor Janson and Magaly Rey Rosa discovered a mutual love for the natural world that eventually led them to join forces and work together to defend nature and bring the “green” philosophy to Guatemalan society.

The first years of work were filled with meetings, activities, and people who in one way or another helped to establish the foundation of the Foundation. One of those people was Luis Movil, General Manager of Esso/Exxon of Central America at the time, who provided the necessary funding to produce the first official documents of Defensores de la Naturaleza.

The dream was always to have a nature reserve, and after flying over Sierra de las Minas, Magaly and Thor fell in love with the cloud forest. With the support of biologists from the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala (especially Drs. Dix and Schuster), they began to seek the declaration of Sierra de las Minas as a protected area.

In 1986, Defensores de la Naturaleza was formally registered as a non-profit, non-political organization.

On October 4, 1990, the Guatemalan Congress declared the Sierra de las Minas Biosphere Reserve a protected area and granted administration to the Foundation. Subsequently, in 1996 it received the administration of the Refugio de Vida Silvestre Bocas del Polochic, in 1997 of the Parque Nacional Naciones Unidas, and in 1999 the co-administration of the Parque Nacional Sierra del Lacandón.

In 2003, with the creation of the Alliance for the Conservation of Mesoamerican Pine-Oak Forests, we began to work through different models based on alliances. Over time we came to understand that, to conserve natural resources, it was necessary to work hand in hand with local communities through community benefit projects, and we can proudly say that, today, local communities have become our most important alliance for the conservation of natural resources in the long term.

Timeline

We are the first civil foundation to be co-responsible for a protected area, becoming, since 1990, a model of protected area management in Latin America.

1980

1983-1986
Legal constitution of Fundación Defensores de la Naturaleza as a civil, non-political, and non-profit organization.

1990

1990
The Congress of the Republic declares the Sierra de las Minas Biosphere Reserve a protected area, delegating its co-administration to Defensores.

1996
Co-administration of the Refugio de Vida Silvestre Bocas del Polochic in Izabal.

1997
Defensores assumes the administration and management of the Parque Nacional Naciones Unidas, Amatitlán.

1999
Co-administration of Parque Nacional Sierra del Lacandón, Petén.

2000

2003
Formation of the Alliance for the Conservation of the Pine-Oak Forests of Mesoamerica.

2004
We promoted the declaration of private natural reserves in biological corridors and dry forests.

2010

2012
Initiation of REDD+ “Forests for Life”, the first project in partnership with local communities.

Through the reduction of deforestation, we obtained international certification of the first 1.8 million tons of carbon equivalent (tCO2eq).

2020

2023
USAID-funded “Bienestar por Biodiversidad” project begins.

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For love and respect for life

Sede Petén:
Parque Nacional
Sierra del Lacandón
3.ª calle “A” 0-62 zona 1
Centro de Gobierno
Santa Elena, Flores, Petén

Sede Verapaces:
Reserva de Biósfera
Sierra de las Minas
Barrio El Carpintero 2-69 zona 0
Purulhá, Baja Verapaz

Sede Polochic:
Refugio de Vida Silvestre
Bocas del Polochic
2.ª calle 5-05 zona 1
El Estor, Izabal
+502 7949-7130 / +502 7949-7237

Sede Motagua:
Reserva de Biósfera
Sierra de las Minas
5.ª avenida “A” 0-44 zona 1
Barrio El Paraíso
Teculután, Zacapa

Sede Villa Nueva:
Parque Nacional
Naciones Unidas
Kilometro 21.5 Antigua Carr.
a Amatitlán, Guatemala
+502 5651-4820

Sede Central
18 calle 18-70 zona 12. Calzada Atanasio Tzul. Guatemala Ciudad
+502 2310 2929