At the frontline of climate change
Sol y Verde is located at the edge of the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Petén, Guatemala - part of the largest tropical forest in Mesoamerica, named the Selva Maya. Historically the heartland of the Maya civilization, Petén houses some of the most significant archaeological sites in Mesoamerica, protected within the Biosphere.
However, following centuries of colonisation and discrimination against our indigenous communities, we are now facing grave danger. Illegal deforestation, unsustainable farming practices and climate change are damaging our ecosystems and causing forest loss at an alarming rate of 5.5% annually. Extreme weather events exacerbate soil erosion and desertification, rendering traditional farming practices obsolete. Our rural and indigenous communities face challenges such as poverty, limited access to education and healthcare, and land disputes, all exacerbated by climate change and environmental degradation. This is leading to forced migration that often fragments our communities and results in the loss of our cultural heritage.
Our vision and mission
From its inception, Baltazar always envisaged Sol y Verde beyond a project: instead, he imagined a community-wide way of being, peacefully co-existing and interacting with nature, which roots itself in rural existence with the land and its indigenous culture, and his own experience of forced displacement across Central America.
There is an urgent need to grow resilience and regenerative capacity and to restore a future for both the forest landscape and indigenous cultural heritage, by transforming how the land is used by the people who depend on it.
Our vision at Sol y Verde is a future where our rural and marginalised communities have the knowledge, capacity and empowerment to restore their natural ecosystems and develop sustainable, resilient livelihoods.
Our mission is the creation of an Ecological Education & Demonstration Centre and an outreach network where we use the frameworks of permaculture and the ancestral Mayan cosmovision to innovate, teach and demonstrate practices for the restoration of nature, bioconstruction, regenerative agroecology, and sustainable livelihoods in harmony with mother earth.
Three Key Action Areas
Nature restoration and agroecology
We build with our local community in ways that are resilient, sustainable, and equipped to face ecological and economic challenges through materials that are sourced regeneratively and directly from our land.
We build with our local community in ways that are resilient, sustainable, and equipped to face ecological and economic challenges through materials that are sourced regeneratively and directly from our land.
Placemaking through bioconstruction
We build with our local community in ways that are resilient, sustainable, and equipped to face ecological and economic challenges through materials that are sourced regeneratively and directly from our land. Community support and wellbeing
We believe that community collaboration is the key to securing long term change. We provide safe and supportive spaces for women and children to learn and directly from our land
How we deliver
- Ecological Education for Youth - a weekly program of classes in collaboration with our local primary schools and Saturday sessions with our Nature Scout Group for boys and girls.
- Women’s Resilient Livelihoods - this includes the Green Pharmacy project - where women are taught to grow and process medicinal plants in collaboration with the University of Tabasco, our community allotment group, and a series of workshops on creating and selling natural products.
- Community Conservation - regular local community events, such as tree planting or rubbish collection days. We have been running these since 2022 in collaboration with other local groups, particularly the youth military reserves.
- Wellbeing for Displaced Individuals - we are in the process of formalising this program which enables particularly vulnerable refugees to spend several residential weeks at Sol y Verde where they can benefit from a safe space for physical, mental and spiritual rejuvenation. Baltazar has been doing outreach work with refugees for decades.
- Community Outreach - for further afield community groups that want to collaborate with us we offer mentorship and organisational support for setting up education programs, bioconstruction builds and reforestation sites. We also offer workshops to Women’s Groups in other municipalities.
Beneficiaries
- Women and Youth of Peten - Mothers and youth below 18, often in households without male presence, working multiple income streams to sustain cost of living.
- Indigenous Mayan Groups - Indigenous Guatemalans who have often been pushed into extreme poverty due to discrimination, insecure land rights, and violence
- Displaced Communities - Migrant and refugee individuals, internally displaced within Guatemala or from South and Central America.
Collaborators
- Grassroots Local Projects - Local ecological projects or women’s artisan groups led by community members with little to no access to funding or partnerships
- Local Governmental Groups - Municipality-run initiatives (like tree nurseries), military youth groups, departmental funding schemes
- Non-profit organisations - Local and international NGOs and associations, such as Rainforest Alliance
- Educational Bodies - Local schools (primaries), nationwide training programs, informal community-led knowledge
exchange hubs - Traders, farmers and Specialists - Carpenters, builders, contractors, farmers, restoration agricultors, etc - local partners with expertise in specific areas related to ours
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