Protecting imperiled “paper parks”: potential lessons from the Sierra Chinajá, Guatemala

In many developing nations, “paper parks”, or protected areas that have little or no formal management on the ground, have resulted from the failure of protected area systems to achieve their foremost goal: biodiversity conservation. This analysis incorporates biophysical, socioeconomic, and land use/tenure data collected by a multi-disciplinary team of Guatemalan and American researchers in order to identify potential management plans and multiple-use/concession arrangements. The Sierra Chinajá is a classic paper park protected area in Guatemala. Many factors have rendered Guatemalan protected areas management policies ineffectual in the Sierra Chinajá despite the fact that it has been an “area of special protection” since 1989. Proximate causes of forest conversion mask underlying driving forces responsible for rapid biodiversity loss. Despite the fact that Guatemala’s protected areas management system is similar to that promoted by international conservation organizations it has yet to effectively conserve biodiversity. These factors suggest that protected areas management in Guatemala, and other developing nations possessing unique cultural and natural histories, must be rooted in the local context as promulgated by the local non-governmental organization ProPéten in their proposal for an official Indigenous Reserve category. The proposal suggests the devolution of management responsibilities from federal institutions to local communities in the effort to develop a community-based, site specific conservation agenda.