A Wildfire management briefing in Guatemala, whilst social distancing due to the pandemic. Image Credit: FUNDAECO.
The world may have stopped for the past few months, but wildfires will not. This puts forest reserves around the world at risk – but timely action can contain a blaze quickly, as the recent success of our partner FUNDAECO shows.
The rangers and firefighters who work tirelessly to protect nature reserves around the world need our help to ensure their continued safety during the pandemic.
FUNDAECO in Guatemala received a hygiene kit to protect them against Coronavirus. Image Credit: FUNDAECO
Last week, community support measures from World Land Trust (WLT) partner FUNDAECO saw protective and hygiene equipment distributed among firefighters in Mixco, Guatemala. The kit included full overalls, masks, ethanol, latex gloves, digital thermometers and face shields – tools to give them the best chance of keeping COVID-19 at bay.
Essential personal Protective Equipment was also delivered to FUNDAECO. Image Credit: FUNDAECO
Wildfires have come to threaten FUNDAECO’s sites. In May this year, a blaze engulfed some 10 hectares of jungle in Petén Forest, northern Guatemala, sparking vast losses of biodiversity and species. Our partner organisation reported that the fire was caused by poorly controlled agricultural burning in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in Mexico, which soon spread to Guatemala. A team coordinated by FUNDAECO was dispatched a total of nine times to extinguish the flames, including the use of a LET-410 Tanker Plane. WLT was impressed by the effective collaboration between Mexican and Guatemalan fire management crews – a success story of teamwork allowing firefighters to quickly contain the blaze and prevent it from spreading further afield.
An aerial photograph showing smoke rising from wildfires in Guatemala. Image credit: FUNDAECO
WLT works with FUNDAECO to protect and manage reserves throughout Guatemala. A donation to the WLT Wildfire Appeal will help provide important safety training and essential equipment to FUNDAECO and 29 other partners across the globe.
While Guatemala has already contended with blazes this year, forest fire season has only just begun in many other parts of the world. We need to act now to protect communities and ecosystems – to turn the tide of wildfires in a critical year for our planet’
WLT is calling on our supporters to
HELP US GET AHEAD OF THE FLAMES.
Read more about the Wildfire Appeal
A donation to the WLT Wildfire Appeal will enable our partners to provide training for rangers and essential equipment to provide a better outcome for nature reserves around the world.
Support us on our mission to fight forest fires around the world by donating to our Wildfire Appeal today.
