Nature and Culture International joined a dedicated group of conservation organizations including the Guatemalan Fundación para el Ecodesarrollo y la Conservación (FUNDAECO), Global Wildlife Conservation, the International Conservation Fund of Canada and World Land Trust-US in a successful effort to rapidly protect 5,436 acres of highly threatened foothill rainforest in the Sierra Caral – an unparalleled center of unique amphibians and reptiles in Central America. Thirty-five percent of the amphibians of Sierra Caral are listed as threatened by IUCN, with ten listed as either critically-endangered or endangered species, including the spectacular cobalt Blue Viper, and unique species of amphibians.

Sierra Caral was under threat of deforestation from illegal logging activities and expanding cattle ranching. All of these activities were rapidly fragmenting a once continuous forest across the Merendón Mountain Ridge. FUNDAECO successfully designed a protected area and mobilized community support for its legal declaration by the National Congress, but the decree for a new protected area could take many years to be passed. By then, much of the species diversity that makes Sierra Caral exceptional would have been lost.

Nature and Culture and our partners zeroed in on a strategy to purchase several private properties in three strategic areas that are extremely important biologically. Together, we raised over $1 million to protect the entirety of the Sierra Caral site.