Environmental education

The training of local tourist guides helps to sensitize the local population on conservation issues. Photo/©: Knut Eisermann

Within the sustainable agriculture activities, members of UPROBON give guided tours through the experimental plots. Local farmers, as well as collaborators from other institutions, can learn about the advantages of the alternative methods.


During the guided tours we emphasize the importance of the cloud forest as water resource and a source to increase the life standard of the local population. These are the first steps towards the development of a consciousness for nature, among adults and children.


In 2003, UPROBON began training local tour guides within the program of sustainable tourism. Scientific knowledge and background information on nature essentially helps local people to live within their environment more consciously. Chelemhá was also destination for several European student groups (University of Göttingen, University of Munich, University of Applied Sciences Eberswalde) in order to learn about cloud forest ecology and conservation activities.


After the necessary infrastructures (visitors center, trails) will be completed, the environmental education program will be further developed and enlarged. We will place special attention to the transmission of information to the local people in Chelemhá, but also to other regions of Guatemala with similar basic conditions, problems, and opportunities.

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