By Jonathan Caxun and Berny Fernando Ortega González, GLFx South Coast Guatemala

Picture a community surrounded by vast green areas with native trees, traditional crops and dirt roads that wind between simple houses.

This is the village of Canoguitas, located in the heart of Nueva Concepción, near Guatemala’s wild Pacific coast.

Located on the banks of the Coyolate River, the name Canoguitas evokes an intimate history with water.

“The name Canoguitas comes from the fact that this area used to flood a lot, and there were no bridges to cross the rivers, so people used canoes,” explains Nelson Yanes, community leader and founder of the Association of Farmers and Protectors of Riverbanks in Nueva Concepción (ASOBORDAS).

This community has worked to protect their landscape ever since the presidency of Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán, who served from 1951 to 1954 and embarked on a major agrarian reform program to redistribute land to benefit landless people.

In Canoguitas, women helped repopulate the Aspidosperma megalocarponor tree, known locally as chichique or ceiba. 

During the agrarian reform, its wood was known for being heavy, hard and fine-textured, and it was in high demand for construction in Nueva Concepción.

But beyond its timber use, this tree is also used for traditional medicine. Its bark is used to prepare infusions that help relieve diabetes. Women have taken to collecting its seeds and replanting them to ensure they’ll be able to keep using this medicinal tree for generations.

The community doesn’t see the riparian forest as an external resource but as an extension of its own being. 

“We feel deeply connected to nature because we have lived among the trees,” says Yanes. 

This connection has evolved into an active commitment to protecting the land, especially after local residents noticed an alarming decline in native species. 

What began in 2010 as a response to floods along the Coyolate River has turned into a conservation and reforestation movement that defines the community today.

Women at the heart of change

At the center of this conservation effort is a group of 33 women. 

Women’s lives are deeply connected to the natural environment on the country’s rural south coast. Some women work in agriculture, but most focus on caring for the home and especially raising children.

In Canoguitas, while men work in agriculture to provide for their households, many women dedicate their extra time to conserving natural resources. 

They tend to the production of forest plants in the community nursery, and despite limited access to basic services, they keep their traditions, ancestral knowledge and a hopeful vision for their territory alive.

Canoguitas is defined by values of unity and family strength. “First comes unity, and you can see it when an activity takes place; the people come together to act,” explains Yanes. 

Anabela Martínez Díaz and María Elena González Álvarez both work with their children in the nursery. 

“We teach our children that if we cut down a tree, we have to plant two or three,” says Martínez Díaz. “That’s our goal with our children. They need to learn not only to cut but also to plant little trees so there’s more oxygen for all of us.”

These women are seed gatherers, constantly monitoring the flowering of species such as the prized matilisguate (Tabebuia rosea), conacaste (Enterolobium cyclocarpum), palo blanco (Roseodendron donnell-smithii), volador (Terminalia oblonga) and rosul (Dalbergia spp.). 

Once the fruits are ready, they begin collecting them, sometimes traveling to other villages when seeds are scarce locally.

In the nursery, each woman is responsible for an individual seedbed, allowing personalized care for her plants. They water, weed, monitor for pests and evaluate the germinating seeds with dedication.

They also identify degraded areas to plant their trees, prioritizing the banks of the Coyolate River. Together, they have identified species such as chichique, conacaste, volador, rosul, puntero (Sickingia salvadorensis), pumpo (Pachira aquatica), sauce (Salix alba) and lagarto (Zanthoxylum belizense), which are now hard to find locally. 

Their goal is to collect native seeds, grow them and replant them to preserve native diversity. 

Canoguitas’ community nursery has grown more than 4,000 forest plants a year since 2012. These are planted within the community and used for reforestation or donated to neighboring communities, spreading the culture of door-to-door conservation.

Here, women – the traditional guardians of home and community – serve as guardians of the environment and as leaders creating long-lasting change. By involving their children, they ensure that a culture of care for the environment is passed on to the next generation.

“We see [our environment] as beautiful, important and admirable – something we must have,” says González Álvarez. 

An ecosystem protected through alliances

Where once there was only the glare of the sun, there is now a recovering biological corridor, crucial for ecological connectivity across vast agro-landscapes, providing shelter and food for many bird species, especially migratory ones. 

“You can see parrots, parakeets and squirrels, when you couldn’t hear anything before,” González Álvarez gushes. 

Along the Coyolate River, 16 hectares have been reforested since 2012 – a monumental achievement for a grassroots initiative. 

This has not only created Canoguitas’ lush biological corridor but also helped protect it from floods when the river swells during the rainy season. A levee built with agribusiness support, along with the riparian forest that accompanies it, has protected the community for more than a decade.

This success has not been achieved alone. Canoguitas is an exemplary model of cooperation. 

The ASOBORDAS association has played a key role through Yanes’ leadership. The Private Institute for Climate Change Research (ICC) has provided scientific knowledge and technical advice, and the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) has also provided funding and support through its GLFx network.

Local agribusinesses have played an essential role, too, by offering financial and logistical support for watershed restoration. 

“Let’s take advantage of agribusiness support,” Yanes suggests. “They have that vision of rebuilding what has been lost, and that is key.” 

Canoguitas: An example for the world to follow

Today, Canoguitas is a beacon of hope and a tangible example of how a community, guided by an environmental culture and the leadership of its people, can reverse degradation and reweave the green mantle of its ecosystem.

Here, conservation isn’t an external project but an internalized value. 

“People already carry that sense of being nature’s guardians – it’s something they have within,” says Yanes. “They have created a collective identity around caring for their common home.” 

Collaboration across sectors has been key. The virtuous symbiosis between the community, the private sector and science is a replicable model for addressing environmental crises.

Yanes believes Canoguitas sends a simple yet powerful message to the world: “Groups or individuals can make changes with minimal resources. We want people to recognize that we must work to improve [our restoration work] and stop destroying [our land].”

The community’s vision is to go beyond planting. The people of Canoguitas are strengthening the scientific management of forest seeds – from their phenology and collection to germination. They’re promoting a growing network of self-sufficient community nurseries and building strong bridges for new public–private partnerships.

In a little Guatemalan village, a group of women – with their hands in the soil and their eyes on the future – are proving that it is possible to restore our planet. 

They remind us that we are all part of this ecosystem and that, with unity and action, we can still sow hope for a greener, purer world for everyone.