Testimonials

“Global Heritage Fund has enabled our entire country - top companies, foundations, the government and community stakeholders - to work together towards a common vision for the successful long-term conservation of Mirador. With GHF’s close partnership with PACUNAM, we have secured over $6 million in private-sector funding from 12 Guatemalan and international companies and $4 million from the Government of Guatemala and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)... GHF’s expertise in planning, partnerships and community development has been critical to our success.”
- Fernando Paiz, Chairman of PACUNAM and former Vice Chairman of Wal-Mart Central America.

Human Impact Stories From Mirador

Juan Carlos Calderon
Juan Carlos Calderon grew up in the village of Carmelita, a small and remote community of 200 people bordering Mirador Rio Azul National Park in the Peten region of Guatemala. Uneducated, unemployed and faced with the basic human need to shelter and feed his family, Juan Carlos subsisted on a life of wildlife poaching and looting in the numerous ruins of the Maya civilization that surround his home. Faced with the need to support his family, how could Juan Carlos be aware of the cultural and natural resources that provided him with these necessities and what could be done to both provide for his needs and protect the cultural heritage and environment of the region? The Global Heritage Fund has found a way.

Since 2002, the Global Heritage Fund has led an integrated program of planning, scientific conservation, community development and funding at Mirador. For the last five years Juan Carlos has worked as a guard in the park. With a job that provides him with a steady income, access to basic health care, and education opportunities - he completed basic reading and writing literacy programs run in the Mirador Project camp- Juan Carlos now defends the very assets that he had plundered for most of his life. Most importantly, because of Juan Carlos’ steady income for the past five years, his eldest son Enrique completed high school and is now studying law at university in Guatemala City.