Young people from forest communities in Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Nicaragua exchanged knowledge and lessons learned about the governance of their territories at the International Tropical Forest Youth Workshop, held February 9-12 in Petén, Guatemala.

It was a collectivity of knowledge, a school of questions, a laboratory of ideas for the 30 young people from about 10 nationalities and forest communities, who for three days connected, shared experiences and learned from each other.

"I have learned that for effective territorial governance it is necessary to involve more young people, paying attention to the participation of young women, to give them the value and space they deserve within the organization."

Ángel Humberto Cortés, 27, who works as a forestry technical assistant in Guatemala.

The workshop addressed theoretical and practical issues such as forest restoration, new technologies to prevent forest degradation, forms of community organization, among many others. All participants were young people from indigenous peoples and local forest communities, leaders in various Latin American tropical forest territorial organizations (member organizations of the Mesoamerican Alliance of Peoples and Forests, as well as the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin and the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil).

Recognized as one of the few examples of sustainable development that works in practice, the community model of the Association of Forest Communities of Petén (ACOFOP), Guatemala, was the starting point for the exchange of experiences. For more than 20 years, ACOFOP has been managing 500,000 hectares of the Maya Biosphere Reserve, the largest protected area in Central America, through a community-based territorial governance model, internationally recognized for having reduced the fire rate to zero and the deforestation rate to 0.4%.

Este encuentro fue posible gracias a la colaboración entre la Asociación de Comunidades Forestales de Petén, la Alianza Mesoamericana de Pueblos y Bosques, la Escuela Mesoamericana de Liderazgo AMPB, la Unión Europea en Guatemala y el proyecto Weaving Ties # Tejiendo Lazos, de la fundación ALDEA.