Sustainable Livelihoods for 100 Families

Dear GlobalGiving Supporter,

Today I wanted to share Tereso's experience, one of the farmers we work with in northern Guatemala, in his own words:

My name is Tereso. I am from the community of Santa Maria Tzeja in northern Guatemala. I want to continue telling you about my experience in the implementation of my agroforestry system. In 2019, I planted more than 1,300 guama plants and 250 mahogany seedlings in 2.31 hectares of degraded land. In the beginning, it took a lot of work since the land was previously used as a pasture, but with the will to transform the use of the soil I decided to carry out the work--and I am succeeding.

I am very happy to see how the plants are growing and how they complement each other. The soil is changing color and texture.

This year, together with the EcoLogic field technician, we have carried out the measurement of subplots to monitor the corn harvest and verify yields, whether there is an increase in production or if it is maintained.

I also want to share my happiness, that thanks to the management carried out by the technical staff of EcoLogic, I received my first incentive payment from the Guatemala National Forest Institute (INAB, by its acronym in Spanish). With this incentive, I have managed to reinvest in the agroforestry system and at the same time, it has served to support my family.

Keeping my agroforestry system in good working order entails great responsibility. The established management plan has to be followed and implemented, and this requires a lot of work and commitment. In 2020, I managed to build more than 500 meters of fire breaks around it.  I had to eliminate any vegetative material that could be a source of fuel and generate a fire in my system and damage it.

I have also put up signage showing the type of project that was carried out, the area, the year it began, the species that interact in the area. I want to thank EcoLogic for providing support, technical assistance, and above all facilitating the processes for the implementation of this type of project since they are of great benefit to us farmers and are friendly to the environment.

 Thank you so very much for being a part of making this work possible!

Dear GlobalGiving Supporters,

Did you know May 20 was World Bee Day? During this day, the UN highlighted the importance of bees for us all, particularly in their role as pollinators. Nearly 75% of the world’s food crops depend, entirely, or at least in part, on animal pollination. 

A few tips on what we can do individually for bees: 

• planting a diverse set of native plants, which flower at different times of the year;
• buying raw honey from local farmers;
• buying products from sustainable agricultural practices; and
• avoiding pesticides, fungicides, or herbicides in our gardens.

Related to our beekeeping efforts in Guatemala, I wanted to share an update from our field technicians, who recently visited our friends at Apiarios Flores Occidentales in the Department of San Marcos.

Their objective was to learn how the family-run enterprise at Apiarios is leveraging products and sub-products of the hive. This workshop was directed to the Ixcán technicians who are in charge of the beekeeping project in the communities, with the aim of learning more about how to transform the raw material (beehive products) into by-products.

Elmer and Antonio shared: “During the two days of theoretical training we learned about 9 products that the hives can generate: honey, pollen, propolis, Royal Jelly, wax, apitoxin, bees, queen bees, and bee larvae. The beekeeping practice consisted of entering the Apiary to obtain each of these products of the hive.

Having the bee products it was necessary to transform them into by-products, this activity focused directly on the subject of confectionery. We learned to make medicinal candies using honey and propolis as the main ingredients.

From beekeeping products, a series of by-products can be transformed, which can be made with the combination of the same raw materials provided by bees, for example: shampoo, honey sweets, propolis sweets, royal jelly, honey sweets with cardamom, multivitamin sweets with honey and propolis, propolis-based decongestant, and honey-based soap.

The possibilities of making sub-products of the schools are infinite, given the number of consumers of these products that vary from children to adults, pharmaceutical products, to beauty products. This responds to a constantly growing industry.”

As a next step, our field technicians will be sharing some of this information with the beekeepers in Ixcán and propose some ways to start incorporating these approaches in order to diversify the ways in which they can generate income from their beekeeping activities.

Thank you so much for all of your support! We look forward to keeping you updated on our next steps.

In solidarity,

Mario Ardany de Leon, EcoLogic Program Officer, Guatemala