Protecting Guatemala’s Cloud Forest From Devastating Wildfires
The Sierra de las Minas Biosphere Reserve protects Guatemala’s largest continuous cloud forest. But, it has faced many wildfires, requiring numerous firefighters who work with insufficient resources and face life-threatening conditions during increasingly severe fire seasons driven by climate change. With your support, a better-equipped team is possible.
Raised so far
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APPEAL Snapshot
Partner
Location
Sierra de las Minas Biosphere Reserve
Appeal Category
- Capacity Building and Training
- Protected Area Management
- Wildlife Conservation
Key Species
- Baird’s tapir (Tapirus bairdii)
- Horned guan (Oreophasis derbianus)
- Jaguar (Panthera onca)
- Golden-cheeked warbler (Setophaga chrysoparia)
Partner Qualifications
The Challenges
Each year, wildfires burn more than 1,200 acres in the Sierra de las Minas Biosphere Reserve, a vast mountain range in eastern Guatemala that protects the country’s largest remaining cloud forest. These fires destroy critical biodiversity and natural ecosystems while degrading air quality and threatening water availability for over 200 communities in the region.
Forest firefighters are essential to both suppressing active fires and preventing future ones through community monitoring, raising awareness, and training local farmers in safer agricultural burning practices. Yet they work with insufficient resources and face life-threatening conditions during increasingly severe fire seasons driven by climate change. Without adequate support, these frontline defenders cannot effectively protect one of Guatemala’s most vital conservation areas.
Urgent Solutions
Defensores de la Naturaleza partners with local communities to combat wildfires in the Sierra de las Minas Biosphere Reserve. This year, Porta Hotel Antigua joins these efforts, creating a cross-sector alliance to prevent and respond to the wildfire crisis.
Why Your Donation Matters
The Sierra de las Minas Biosphere Reserve protects Guatemala’s largest continuous cloud forest and endangered species like the Baird’s tapir, Jaguar, and Horned guan, while regulating water supplies for hundreds of thousands of people and capturing carbon that fights climate change. Guatemala is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change, and wildfires are accelerating environmental destruction. When the Sierra de las Minas forest burns, communities lose clean water and livelihoods, wildlife loses habitat, and we all lose a critical climate ally. Your support protects this treasure when it’s needed most.
Your donation funds the hiring, training, and equipping of community-based forest firefighters who serve as the frontline defense for this irreplaceable ecosystem. It provides the uniforms, tools, and transportation needed to work safely across thousands of acres of remote cloud forest. Trained teams suppress active fires, monitor vulnerable areas, educate communities about fire prevention, and restore burned landscapes.