EcoLogic empowers rural and indigenous peoples to restore and protect tropical ecosystems in Central America and Mexico.

Water Committee in Honduras Wins United Nations Prize

Our partner AJAASSPIB won the Equator prize! One of our jobs as collaborators with our community partner organizations is to promote their successes so they gain needed support. Doing so also helps get the word out about the ways the EcoLogic community is solving problems. We nominated the Association of Water Committees of the Southern Sector of Pico Bonito National Park or AJAASSPIB (Spanish acronym) for their work leading communities to conserve, restore and sustainably manage local water resources.   As part of our mandate to strengthen community governance structures and leadership abilities, EcoLogic was instrumental in helping establish AJAASSPIB  in 2003, and have worked with them since on activities including reforestation, the installation of fuel efficient cooking stoves, the mapping, legal demarcation and protection of watersheds, and environmental awareness campaigns.  

Read more about AJAASSPIB winning the United Nations Equator Prize.

Our Forest Sings: Totonicapán TV Promotes Forest Conservation

The television spot that ran for communities around Totonicapán. "Our Forest Sings for the water, for the air, and for life."

Last fall EcoLogic and local partner the 48 Cantones began an environmental awareness campaign to encourage local communities to protect the 52,000 acre old-growth forest of Totonicapán, Guatemala. Members of the 48 Cantones, EcoLogic staff and a journalist from Guatemala City collaborated to develop the campaign, “Our Forest Sings for the water, for the air, and for life.” From August through December local radio stations aired short public awareness ads that the campaign produced in Spanish and Maya Quiché, and two tv channels regularly broadcast a television spot to an audience of over 100,000 people.

Read more about the 48 Cantones outreach activities.

"Golden" Prize for guama advocate

We are pleased to congratulate José Salvador Toc who recently received Heifer International's Golden Talent Award for "visionary leadership" in his community. Don Salvador, a farmer from Ixcan in Guatemala, has been an active community collaborator with EcoLogic and local partner, the Northern Border Municipalities Alliance (MFN), since our project work began in the area in 2005.

Don Salvador has always been an active participant in community consultations and workshops, but his championing of the use of Inga or guama (Spanish) trees in agroforestry is what truly set him apart. In 2008, EcoLogic provided Don Salvador with technical training in agroforestry techniques, and gave him guama seeds to start his own plot. Just two years later, Don Salvador was harvesting 40% more corn from the corn stalks grown between the guama trees, and the guama leaves were suppressing weeds and mulching the soil so no extra fertilizer was needed. Wanting to share this knowledge and help his community, Don Salvador began to encourage farmers near and far to visit his parcel. To this day he provides trainings to any who wish help, and donates guama seeds to the community and his neighbors whenever he can. The award from Heifer, recognizes this pioneering spirit and personal dedication.

Read more about Don Salvador's prize and our work in Guatemala.