Planting Trees: Protecting the Environment in Guatemala

Within the greater contexts of environmental justice, climate change, and indigenous peoples’ struggle for survival and sovereignty, community activist Jorge Armando will highlight his work with the Chico Mendes Reforestation Project in Pachaj, a Maya K’iche’ village in Guatemala. The Project began in 1998 as an idea conceived by Jorge Armando and two friends who had become disillusioned with the politics of their local government and created a new environmental initiative with a focus on the reforestation of nearby community lands. It began with a small tree nursery in Pachaj—an area highly impacted by heavy logging, mining, agriculture and the deforestation done during the Civil War of the 1980s. Join Jorge Armando to learn about the Project and the environmental crisis in Central America created by civil war, international free trade agreements, and continued social repression. About the Lecturer: Jorge Armando Lopez, Chico Mendes Reforestation Project in Guatemal