Why saving it?

The Great Maya Forest is one of the last great tropical forests in the Americas. A living landscape that connects Guatemala, Mexico, and Belize through a single natural system spanning more than 5.7 million hectares.

Here, the forest regulates climate, protects water resources, captures carbon, and sustains biodiversity found nowhere else on Earth. It remains one of the last refuges for species that exist nowhere else.

But this balance is being broken.

In recent years, pressure on the forest has increased at an alarming rate. Human-caused wildfires, illegal cattle ranching, wildlife trafficking, land invasions, and agricultural expansion continue to advance deeper into the forest. At the same time, infrastructure projects are fragmenting the landscape, while organized crime is expanding its presence in remote areas.

Within the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala alone, an area equivalent to nearly one million soccer fields has been lost in recent years.

This is not a distant threat. It is happening now.

When a forest becomes fragmented, it can no longer function as a complete ecosystem. Climate patterns are disrupted, species disappear, water cycles weaken, and the communities that depend on the forest are directly affected.

What is at stake is not only nature. It is stability, the future, and the balance that sustains life.

Amid this growing pressure survives one of the forest's most iconic species: the Scarlet Macaw.

Today, only about 500 individuals remain in the wild across the region. Their story reflects what is happening throughout the forest. Their nests are looted, their habitat is disappearing, and only a small fraction survive the illegal wildlife trade.

And yet, they continue to fight for survival.

Conservation teams work every day under extreme conditions to protect them. They monitor nests, rescue chicks, confront poachers, and support reintroduction efforts. It is a race against time.

Saving the Scarlet Macaw is not only about protecting a species. It is about defending the ecosystem that sustains it.

If the forest falls, it will not fall alone. Biodiversity will be lost, wildfires will intensify, droughts will increase, and one of Mesoamerica’s last great natural corridors will be broken.

And once that balance is lost, there is no turning back.

Saving the Great Maya Forest means acting before the damage becomes irreversible.

It means choosing a future where this forest still stands.

It means understanding that what is at stake is not just a place, but everything that depends on it.