ARCAS is a non-profit NGO and relies entirely on the generous support of donors, volunteers and students from around the world. Currently, it is undergoing a crisis due to a loss in income from its volunteer and veterinary student programs because of COVID-19. Donations to this project will help ARCAS survive this crisis, allowing it to continue its invaluable work rescuing and conserving endangered wildlife and educating future generations to care for it.
Wildlife trafficking is decimating populations of wildlife throughout Guatemala, especially in the Maya Biosphere Reserve in the northern Peten region of the country. The Reserve is the largest remaining tropical forest in Mesoamerica and source of much of the wildlife trafficked in the region, including parrots, jaguars and monkeys. The Covid 19 pandemic has shut down ARCAS's volunteer program, which provides the operational funding and labor for its wildlife rescue activities in the Reserve.
Local community guides and tour boat operators are ARCAS's allies in its efforts to promote wildlife tourism as an economic alternative to unsustainable extractive practices such as poaching and illegal logging. During these uncertain times of COVID-19, ARCAS and its allies in the tourism industry will shift their focus from international to domestic tourism. Project funds will be used to hire local community guides and interns to support the operations of the wildlife rescue center.
This project will support the rescue and habilitation of wild animals at ARCAS's rescue center in Peten. It aims to conserve Guatemala's biodiversity legacy for future generations, supporting ecotourism, handicrafts production and other sustainable ways to take advantage of this biodiversity without destroying it. ARCAS is a home-grown leader in fighting wildlife trafficking in Guatemala, with a proven 30+ track record, and this project strives to ensure that it continues its invaluable work.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
