Defending the Heart of the Maya Biosphere—The Mirador 2024-25 Impact Report
Global Conservation is working to secure permanent protection for Mirador National Park in Petén, Guatemala—the Heart of the Maya Biosphere and the Cradle of Maya Civilization.
Mirador National Park and the Mirador Wilderness Area comprise the largest intact tropical forest north of the Amazon. Since 2018, Global Conservation has been fighting to protect Mirador National Park in collaboration with FundaEco and other GC Partners, utilizing a dedicated Mirador Genesis Team, one of the best in Latin America, which patrols over 30,000 kilometers each year and makes hundreds of interdictions and arrests for illegal logging, hunting, and forest clearing.
Mirador National Park boasts over 40 major ancient Maya cities, immense temples and pyramids, and hundreds of miles of interconnected Mayan causeways, all in an area larger than Yellowstone.
Mirador is a critical site not only for the conservation of biodiversity but also for cultural heritage. The archaeological importance of this site was emphasized in 2021 when a 3D LiDAR survey led by Dr. Richard Hansen revealed thousands of ancient structures in 25 major cities across the landscape.
Unfortunately, deforestation continues to threaten the Maya Biosphere Reserve, and its archaeological sites are threatened by looting and development. With Global Conservation’s support and matching funding from Rainforest Trust, the private nonprofit FundaEco has been working hard to stop illegal activities in Parque Nacional Mirador–Rio Azul (Mirador-Rio Azul National Park) and surrounding areas.
"Thanks to Global Conservation's reliable financial support over these two years, we have maximized the combined efforts of our field staff, Genesys rangers, and technical team working with local communities and government organizations (CONAP and CECON) to achieve the critical park and wildlife protection goals we had proposed for 2024-25."
- Francisco Asturias, Director of Mirador, FundaEco
Francisco Asturias, Director of FundaEco Petén, and the Mirador Genesis Rangers are leading these efforts. These elite-trained rangers are a combined team of government police and military, NGO-trained rangers, and community Ecoguards working together to stop wildlife poaching, looting of archaeological sites, illegal logging, and land clearing for cattle ranching.
This land clearing is especially contentious because it supports narcotrafficking by providing a medium for money laundering, drug smuggling, and territory control.
Rangers discover a drug stash.
CONAP is redoubling its efforts to restore and preserve the largest protected area in the nation and is releasing a public complaint.
GC Protection Objectives – Mirador National Park
Establish permanent legal protection for the nature, wildlife, and archaeological heritage of Mirador.
Assist the Guatemalan government in securing UNESCO World Heritage designation.
Engage in negotiations with stakeholders to decide which lands to incorporate into the expanded national park.
Secure larger international support for park setup after initial five-year startup operations.
Achieve an economically sustainable protected area within the next ten years, i.e., tourism revenues exceed park operating expenses.
Key Achievements of 2024-25
In the past two years, the Mirador Protection program achieved excellent results:
Mirador Patrols: Over 58,400 km traveled across 1,687 patrols in 2024-25.
International Collaboration: In collaboration with Mexican authorities, Mirador Rangers and Community Ecoguards patrolled with the Guatemalan Army and Police, closing down a major illegal logging syndicate working inside Mirador National Park. Mirador Rangers also collaborated with the Guatemalan army, Guatemalan park rangers, firefighters from Calakmul, Mexico, and volunteers to construct a firebreak along the border between Mexico and Mirador.
Arrests and Citations: The team has identified 48 crimes and made arrests in 34 cases. We captured twenty-two loggers and seized their equipment and a truck.
New Vehicles: GC funded the purchase of a truck, two motorcycles, a trailer, and five ATVs for patrolling. We also funded tires, repairs, and maintenance on six ATVs.
Jaguar and Wildlife Studies: FundaEco deployed trailcam networks for estimation of predator and prey populations.
Ranger Training: Both on-the-job and classroom training were conducted. Further, two Mirador rangers attended a two-week park management training at Colorado State University.
SMART Patrol Trainings: With GC's support, 72 Guatemalan rangers were taught to use the SMART system.
Infrastructure: With GC's support, FundaEco constructed the Selva Maya Command Center, a bungalow, kitchen, and trail system at Dos Lagunas, and a dormitory for rangers.
Law Enforcement: Training of special ranger teams to carry out patrols with the Army (Ministerio de la Defensa Nacional) and the police, as well as permanently patrolling the entire Mirador area using the SMART patrol system.
Global Conservation Supports 12 Community Ecoguards. Photo courtesy of CONAP.
Establishing the Mirador Park Authority
We have organized a professional ranger force and park management by closely collaborating with the Guatemalan government's Consejo National de Areas Protegidas (CONAP), the Instituto Guatemalteco de Turismo (INGUAT), and local communities. The Mirador Park Authority integrates existing guards.
Stopping Land Invasions in Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, Mexico
During 2025, key actions were consolidated for the protection and monitoring of the Mirador–Río Azul National Park (PNMRA) and the Naachtún–Dos Lagunas Biotope (BPDL), located in the heart of the Maya Forest. This work was led by the technical team of FUNDAECO, CECON, and CONAP, with operational support from the elite Mirador Genesis Team, known for its high tactical capacity and experience in remote and hard-to-reach areas.
The activities followed a comprehensive protection approach, including high-impact patrols, biological monitoring, threat control, and trinational cooperation, which prioritizes extensive foot and vehicle patrols, as well as inspections in border areas with Mexico and Belize. Thanks to the strategic deployment of field teams, continuous institutional presence was maintained at the camps, strengthening response capacity against illegal hunting, wildlife trafficking, forest fires, and illegal land occupations.
The GC-sponsored Mirador Genesis Team, with its high tactical capacity, rapid response, and experience in difficult-to-access areas, played a key role in containing threats in border areas, supporting judicial patrols, dismantling illegal structures, providing support to international missions, and strengthening institutional presence along the border with Mexico and Belize.
The Mirador Genesis Team worked with other park ranger teams to keep up constant patrols. This helped keep threats from invasions, wildlife trafficking, illegal logging, and forest fires under control, which made the Maya Forest's biodiversity even safer. They also played a key role through trinational patrol commissions, maintenance and installation of camera traps, verification of water bodies, as well as the identification and destruction of improvised structures indicating invasion attempts.
Global Conservation supports their fleet of eight (8) ATVs, 3 Trucks and mobilization for up to 60 rangers and military across thousands of kilometers of endangered national park and forest.
GC also provides strategic and technological support for information gathering and decision-making in the management of the Mirador Río Azul National Park and the Naachtún–Dos Lagunas Biotope, reaffirming its commitment to the effective protection of the area.
Thanks to GC's intensive support, extensive patrols were prioritized in critical areas, including border inspections and monitoring of water bodies and wildlife, as well as infrastructure maintenance and logistical support for other operational brigades.
Illegal Hunting Endangers Jaguars and Their Prey
Massive habitat loss across Mesoamerica is pressuring jaguars into continuously smaller areas. Over 80% of the Maya Biosphere Reserve has been lost in just 20 years. Combined with hunting and wildlife poaching for profits, such loss is putting major pressure on the jaguar’s survival. This multi-year scientific study has already created reliable and comparable density estimates, which are key to monitoring wildlife populations across space and time. For the first time in Guatemala and the Maya Biosphere, we obtained the data needed to accurately detect jaguar population declines, estimate threats, and implement the appropriate conservation interventions.
2026 will be our eighth year of the Global Park Defense and Community Protection program in Mirador National Park. Our long-term goal in Mirador is to achieve “No Cut, No Kill” protection while increasing tourism revenues to benefit local communities. We also aim to achieve UNESCO World Heritage Designation for Mirador and to expand the area of the park by purchasing neighboring forestry concessions.
In one week, park guards of CONAP, CECON AND FUNDAECO conducted patrols at every corner of the park and biotope, on the border line with Mexico, covering an amount of more than 270 kilometers.
Removing Immediate Threats to Rainforest Destruction
In 2025, GC supported bi-national patrols in the Balam-Ku area of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve to combat land invasions, resulting in the removal of hundreds of Mexican and Guatemalan poachers who were illegally destroying one of Mexico’s last intact tropical rainforests.
Illegal logging of hardwoods on the Mexican-Guatemalan border has been a persistent problem. FundaEco is collaborating with Calakmul Biosphere Reserve authorities, just across the border in Mexico, to address this issue and other transboundary concerns. Collaboration between Guatemala and Mexico is crucial for protecting the Selva Maya, a transboundary ecosystem that, of course, does not stop at a national border.
Fortunately, an international partnership between Mexico and Guatemala has allowed for joint patrols in recent years, bolstering efforts to halt cross-border crimes like illegal logging and narcotrafficking. In 2025, Rangers closed down a major illegal logging syndicate, arresting 22 illegal loggers and seizing illegal logging equipment and a truck.
"Without a doubt, the greatest achievement in Control and Protection is that from 2024-25, illegal loggers have not entered Guatemala from Mexico to cut more trees. This is thanks to the actions of the Mirador Genesis Team and the constant patrols carried out by the park rangers. In Mexico they are still cutting to date."
- Francisco Asturias, Director of FundaEco Petén
Agencies from three different countries work together, including Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala.
GC Supports Tri-National Patrolling Across the Maya Biosphere
Multiple international tours were carried out in 2024-25 along the borderlines of Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala, where more than 30 park rangers from the following protected natural areas participated: Parque Mirador Rio Azul (CONAP, FUNDAECO, CECOM), Calakmul, Balamku, PROFEPA, and Rio Bravo in Belize.
The park rangers have carried out 80 surveillance tours in the core area of the Reserve of the Calakmul Biosphere. In total, they have traveled approximately 6,500 kilometers. Additionally, it's been reported that the Rangers' presence alone while patrolling is scattering poachers and making them run.
GC supported many coordinated patrolling operations in the core area of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in collaboration with Mirador’s Genesys Rangers and Mexican security authorities (ProfEPA, National Guard, SEDENA, FGR, and State Police), which carry out 80+ patrols in the core area of the reserve, traveling 8–10,000 kilometers annually.
We must stop these illicit activities of encroachment and biodiversity destruction within Protected Areas immediately, before it's too late. As of Summer 2025, new invasions in southern Balam Ku have alarmingly advanced due to deforestation for corn crops and, subsequently, for livestock. We cannot rule out the possibility that, at some point, drug traffickers will take advantage of this situation and use these areas for their illegal operations.
We continue to make an urgent call to the authorities of Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize, as well as the non-governmental organizations, media outlets, and social networks, so that they act immediately and stop this serious problem before it gets out of control.
The Mirador Genesis Team Received an Award of Honor from the President of the Congress of Guatemala and Congressman César Fion.
On October 31st, the President of the Congress of Guatemala and Congressman César Fion gave a formal recognition to the Genesis Elite Ranger Team and to me inside the Congress in Guatemala City.
During the ceremony, the President of the Congress and Congressman Fion both committed to begin the process so that the Park can receive an annual budget allocation from the Government of Guatemala. The idea is that these funds could be managed through FUNDAECO.
FUNDAECO also received five powerful solar systems in October 2025 that will power both the rangers' camps and the ecotourism programs.
