ICA Language School. Guatemala

A BRIEF HISTORY:

In 1989 a group of individuals, including teachers and Spanish language students from I.C.A., began to talk about the possibility of starting a project that would be supported economically by the school and would benefit residents of the Department of Quetzaltenango. After a needs assessment they decided to target the environment.

Shortly thereafter, a project was launched through a partnership between the Environmental Department of the Municipality of Quetzaltenango and the I.C.A. Spanish school. Massive reforestation campaigns were initiated with public school students, local sawmills, and the municipality. A year later, the NGO "ICAmigos" was born, and a year after that the reforestation project became independent of the city government.

In 1991 a forest nursery was established in an area called "Las Majadas". However, due to the poor condition of the land, its remote location, and lack of water, the nursery was moved to an alternate location with better accessibility and facilities for raising trees. As a result, in 1992, the nursery was reopened on the campus of the "Marisa Luisa de Marillac" Nursing Home in Zone 9 of the city.

In 1998 the nursery was moved to the "Labor San Antonio", an undeveloped tract of land in Zone 9. The nursery still functions in this location, covering 40 square meters of land, with a house for the caretaker and a water storage system with a 1200-liter capacity.

In 13 years of working in reforestation we have seen dramatic increase in the number of forest nurseries, more interest on the part of the community in participating, individually and collectively, in planting, and more involvement by the mass media.

WHAT DOES THE PROJECT CONSIST OF?

The project's main facility is a forest nursery, located in the Labor San Antonio in Quetzaltenango's Zone 9, about two kilometers from the center of the city. The nursery is under the supervision of the ICAmigos NGO and is staffed by a team of temporary and permanent workers.

The project's mission is to raise a hundred thousand trees of local species such as alder, cypress, pine, and eucalyptus. The project begins with seed collection and continues until the saplings can survive in the mountains without special projection. It serves various areas, including Santa Barbara in the La Esperanza area, Las Majadas, Chuicavioc, El Papal, Cerro Siete Orejas (the Seven Ears Hill), and Cerro Quemado (Burned Hill), where 15 thousand trees have been planted.

Currently, two areas are designated for reforestation in a project, which began in 2000 and should last until 2005. One of the projects is on land owned by the Catholic Church in Zone 10 of the city and the other is owned by the City of Quetzaltenango, on the hill named El Baul (The Trunk) in Zone 5. More than twenty thousand trees have been planted in these areas and they are currently being maintained.

JUSTIFICATION OF THE PROJECT

ICAmigos was alarmed at several national/local environmental problems, including the high rates of deforestation, the erosion of the forests, the changing of wooded mountainous areas to deserts due to excessive logging for profit, cutting trees for firewood and building, and forest fires. In spite of all of these problems the local and national authorities have not devoted much attention to solving this problem. Thus, ICAmigos chose to open a nursery for the following reasons:

Lack of community nurseries that could raise large quantities of trees for mass plantings to fight deforestation;
The high cost of the trees available in the few private nurseries in the city of Quetzaltenango;
The excessive cutting of trees in the mountains in the area;
A lack of woodland conservation education for the local population; and
Decreased water levels in local rivers caused by deforestation in the mountains.

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of the project are the following:

To promote the establishment of community nurseries;
To protect the water levels in the natural water sources in the area;
To raise trees and thus reduce costs;
To raise rapidly growing trees that provide organic material to the forest environment;
To raise forest trees and fruit trees indigenous to the area;
To maintain an annual production of more that one hundred thousand saplings;
To increase the awareness of ecological issues among schoolchildren, rural communities, and the general population; and
To maintain a cooperative relationship with the various environmental organizations in the area.

LOCATION OF THE PROJECT

The forest nursery is currently located in the Labor San Antonio, an undeveloped tract of land in Zone 9 of the city of Quetzaltenango, about 2 kilometers from the center of the city. Quetzaltenango is the second largest city in Guatemala, located in a mountainous region in the western part of the country, about 200 kilometers from the capital, Guatemala City. Its altitude is 2,334 meters above sea level; its climate is cool with average temperature of 16C/63F.

GOALS

The project started with the following goals, all of which have been met:

To be a well-recognized nursery;
To sell plants at low cost or exchange them for raw materials;
To provide permanent work, eventually with benefits, to laborers and their families;
To maintain cooperative relationships with related organizations;
To involve nationals and foreigners in meeting the ecological needs of the country;
To convert deforested areas to forested ones in five years; and
To use organic compost, natural insecticides and to maintain the nursery as ecologically responsible as possible.

CHRONOLOGY OF ACTIVITIES: REFORESTATION PROJECT, 2000

ACTIVITIES

1. Selection of land

2. Preparation of land

3. Seed collection

4. Planting of seed

5. Transportation of materials

6. Preparation of bags for saplings

7. Transplanting of saplings

8. Maintenance: cleaning, watering, pest control

9. Reforestation campaign

STAFFING

The reforestation project includes the following staff:

PERMANENT: A coordinator contracted through ICAmigos who is responsible for planning, enacting and evaluating project activities. Three permanent laborers, who are supervised by the project's coordinator, are responsible for the care and maintenance of the saplings, from seed collection until the saplings are in prime condition for transplanting. One forestry technician is responsible for pest control, fumigation, and monitoring the growing conditions of the saplings.

TEMPORARY: Volunteer workers, from many countries and sister organizations, who work for a minimum of one week, with no upper limit to the time they can work. In addition Spanish teachers contribute their voluntary work during I.C.A. school activities.

Material Resources

The project has the following material resources: land, seeds, organic compost, sand, topsoil, wood, plastic bags, twine, farming tools, a water storage system, and a pick-up truck.

Financing

It is important to emphasize that the ICAmigos NGO is responsible for providing sufficient funding for the project. ICAmigos receives funds from the following sources:

A percentage of the weekly tuition paid by students who study Spanish at I.C.A;
Weekly contributions by each teacher at I.C.A;
Donations of students and former students; and
Sale of saplings at economical prices.