Water

Current Projects.
Sierra de Guerrero, Mexico
San Miguel de Los Altos, Guatemala
Veracruz, Mexico
Sarstun, Guatemala
Sarstoon Temash National Park, Belize
Pico Bonito National Park, Honduras
Atlantida, Honduras

Water is a universal necessity for life. Increasingly polluted and diminishing fresh water supplies compromise health and food security, and undermine economic growth. The lack of freshwater has reached crisis levels in many places around the world. In Mesoamerica, only 21% of the freshwater available in 1950 remains today. This decline is directly attributable to extensive deforestation and a lack of economic incentives for sustainable land use.

The state of mangroves and reefs is equally alarming. According to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, the average hard coral cover in the Caribbean has declined from 50% to 10% in the last three decades and 35% of mangroves have been lost in the last two decades.
Through its micro-watershed and coastal management programs, EcoLogic's partners work to ensure clean water remains available and that precious marine resources are not overharvested or destroyed.

Micro-Watershed Management.
EcoLogic collaborates with partners and communities to create replicable models that allow groups to protect and manage their water resources in ways that are sustainable, build community wealth, and restore degraded habitats to protect biodiversity. Our community-based approach to watershed management relies on upland rural community water boards working in close collaboration to establish local governance regimes around priority conservation areas. This model generates new sources of local financing to invest in ecological protection and restoration.

Benefiting from local stewardship practices and strong community organization, EcoLogic has nurtured extraordinary success in places like Totonicopán, Guatemala, and La Ceiba, Honduras, where communities are successfully and profitably managing water infrastructure that provides safe drinking water to thousands in their regions. To learn more about these efforts, read our case studies.

Coastal Zone Management
Associated with the destruction of mangroves and reefs, fisheries throughout the Caribbean basin - especially in the Gulf of Honduras - are in serious decline. This decline is also due in part to overfishing by coastal communities whose livelihoods depend on immediate access to ocean resources. Creating strict off-limits marine protected areas that do not take into account human incentives for conservation has not proven to be a sustainable model for this region.

Employing its expertise in bringing together different parties to address regional environmental and economic problems, EcoLogic is working with local and national governments, NGOs, and local industry representatives to develop a comprehensive solution that balances local livelihood considerations with the area's conservation needs. Our Belizean partner, the Sarstoon Temash Institute for Indigenous Management, has been leading by example with its coastal zone management activities.

EcoLogic looks to replicate this success across the river on the Guatemalan side so that together, both Belize and Guatemala can successfully address threats to the Sarstoon River Basin, one of the most important rivers affecting the health of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System.

In Veracruz, Mexico, we have begun work with Pronatura to halt the upstream pollution and degradation of the Papaloapan River that is destroying the world-renowned Wetlands of Alvarado. As in Belize, we will work across sectors to create solutions that are environmentally and socially sustainable.

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