The forests of the southeastern region of Mexico, Guatemala and Belize make up the Selva Maya, the largest tropical rainforest north of the Amazon. This tropical rainforest is internationally recognized for its forest management that is carried out at the community level, from ejidos in Mexico to forest concessions in Guatemala. Furthermore, Selva Maya is home to vast amounts of biodiversity, carbon storage and the livelihoods and culture of thousands of local and indigenous communities. It is also the location of some of the world’s most valuable archaeological sites.

Ongoing development in Mexico’s Mayan Riviera will continue to invest in and reshape the region with new hotels, apartment developments, and amenities for tourists. Meanwhile the vast tropical forest landscape (Selva Maya Mexico), just inland from the coast, remains threatened by socio-economic, political, and cultural factors. One of the proven conservation strategies in this region is the ejido system which empowers local communities to maintain the land they have been provided to manage, in turn providing sustainable livelihoods while conserving large areas of forest. 

In addition, Selva Maya tropical timber community enterprises have suffered from lack of visibility to equitable market pricing for timber. It is critical that this gap be reduced, and our forest community partners are equipped to supply the global tropical timber markets and collaborate at a regional level to strengthen their technical, business and trading capacities.

By linking the private sector, government agencies and non-governmental organizations with the ejido conservation system in a mutually beneficial manner, we aim to show that private sector investment can share the mission and benefit of local conservation. We aim to facilitate and de-risk economic links between ejidos and private sector by providing tropical timber that will benefit their business models. The result will be stronger “brand experience” offerings for the private sector and financial resources for conservation businesses. An additional outcome will be thousands of hectares of forests conserved through the community businesses.