Translation
Original language
16.07.2025
Environment and socio-economic development in Guatemala
Introduction
The article presents the key elements for determination of the level of socio- economic development of Guatemala and how it is affected by the ecological crisis. It discusses the issues of land use, mining, and soil degradation; defor- estation, water pollution, river sequestration; climate change; and vulnerability to natural phenomena. As well as possible comprehensive solutions to over- come the ecological crisis and strengthen socio-economic development of the country.
Guatemala
Guatemala, a state in Central America that is known for its ancient culture, the cradle of the Mayan civilization, is rich in natural resources and has excep- tional biodiversity and ecosystems varying fr om tropical forests to coasts and volcanoes.
Geographical location, political and administrative division
The area of the country is 108,889 square kilometers. Political and administra- tive structure: 8 regions, 22 departments, and 340 municipalities.
Population
Four major peoples live in Guatemala: Mayans, Xincas, Garifunas and Mesti- zos, the total number of which exceeds 14,901,296 residents, of which 6,207,503 are Mayans, 19,529 — Garifunas, 264,167 — Xincas, and 8,346,120 — Mestizos, 27,647 — Creoles or people of African descent, and 36,320 foreigners. Gender composition of the population: 7,237,582 men and 7,663,314 women. The population growth rate is 2.5 % (INE, 2018).
Expected survival at birth: 74.3 %, average period of study is 6.6 years, per cap- ita income is 8,494, and human capital development index is 0.663. Human cap- ital development index is lower than in Latin American and Caribbean countries wh ere it is 0.766.
61.6 % of the population live in poverty or extreme poverty. They have no access to official jobs, public healthcare, social security, education, and housing.
Geomorphological formation of the territory
60 % of surface of Guatemala is represented by mountainous relief; Sierra Madre crosses the country fr om the West to the East, runs parallel to Pacific Ocean, and extends to Honduras via Cerro Oscuro. Cuchumatanes mountain range extends to the North from the Chixoy, or Negro, river wh ere it gets divided into two parts: Verapaz mountains in the East and Cuchumatanes in the West. It is one of the most volcanically active countries in the world: there are 38 volcanos here. Due to the multiple orographic folds it is subject to constant earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes (MARN, 2009).
Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARN) divides the ter- ritory into seven regions: Pacific plains, volcanic highlands, metamorphic high- lands, Northern limestone plateaus, Northern limestone lowlands, and Northern floodplains. They are divided into 14 land regions, each of which includes various land ecosystems in the country: wet, mountain, and dry forests; pine-oak for- ests, thorny bushes, and mangroves. This is a country with plenty of forests and well-developed forestry industry. Soils are heterogeneous due to the diversity of geological, orographic, and lithic conditions, as well as formation processes: Entisols, Mollisols, Inceptisols, Vertisols, Alfisols, Andisols, Ultisols (MARN, 2009).
Aquatic biodiversity of the country is divided into two fish habitats: Pacific and Caribbean. They consist of four ecoregions sharing 14 watershed ecological units that contain 204 riverine ecosystems and 19 stagnant or lake ecosystems (MARN, 2009).
Hydrography. Mountain systems define three hydrographic slopes: the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean that is divided into the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. There are multiple rivers, lakes, and lagoons of volcanic and river origin within the territory.
Biodiversity of the country (0.07 % of the planet’s land area) according to the most common approaches. Terrestrial ecosystems of the country can be grouped into nine biomes (Villar, 1994), 14 Holdridge life zones, and 14 terrestrial ecoregions (Dinerstein, et al., 1995), (MARN, 2009).
Bioregionalization of the continental shelf and coast. Marine space of Guate- mala is divided into two districts: the Eastern Pacific Ocean and the tropical north- western Atlantic Ocean that include marine ecoregions.
Physicochemical components correspond to the atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere; biological components correspond to the biosphere, and social ones — to the sociosphere (Gallopin, 1980).
Land use
Land is the main means of production in Guatemala.
Land distribution is uneven: 98 % belong to large estates owning the most fer- tile lands. They belong to 2 % of the population, i. e. oligarchs and bourgeoisie. 2 % of lands are distributed between small landownerships owned by 98 % of the pop- ulation: Maya, Garifuna, Xinca, and poor Ladino (Mestizos).
Large estates are concentrated in the departments of Escuintla, Retalhuleu, Suchitepéquez, Izabal, as well as in the Polochic river valley, Alta Verapaz depart- ment. These are fertile lands with high potential for usage; they can be cultivated without physical destruction of the soil1.
Small estates are the small lots of barren land located on hills and slopes that are usually owned or possessed by middle-income and poor peasants. Their prod- ucts are mainly meant for family consumption, as they are insufficient for large- scale commercial activities.
Monoculture, mining, land degradation, and biodiversity
In recent years, monoculture production has increased in large estates. Lands are intensively used for sowing, growing, and harvesting of sugar cane for production of sugar and its derivatives, as well as African palm — for production of oils and fats. Culti- vation of original crops such as corn, black beans, and rice for domestic consumption, sale, and export to Central America has been destroyed in these areas, which forces import of these basic food items for majority of the country’s population and weakens food security and economy of the country. Use of transgenic seeds has expanded.
1 US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Food.
Intensive exploitation of lands accompanied by excessive use of insecticides and pesticides and deforestation due to excessive logging operations cause deg- radation of soils and their biodiversity, including loss of soil fertility that cannot be recovered in less than 20 years. Deforestation of Guatemala reaches 1 % a year, which is the highest rate in Latin America.
Open-pit mining
There is vast amount of minerals such as nickel, rare earths, jade, gold, tung- sten, manganese, etc. within the territory of Guatemala.
The following mining companies are operating in the country: Goldcorp, a transnational company that operates via Montana gold exploration company and Marlin that mines gold in open-pit in San Marcos; Entre Mares, a mining project in Cerro Blanco, Jutiapa. Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel, S.A — CGN, subsidiary of Solway Investment Group, is involved in mining and sale of nickel.
The Ministry of Energy and Mines approves licenses for exploration, extraction, production, and commercial use of oil, gold, nickel, jade, and other min- erals. It is known that there are rare earth metals that are being mined. Contracts are very burdensome; companies retain 99 % of the product, and the government retains 1 % royalty.
At present, mining leads to incurable diseases, deterioration of living condi- tions, environmental pollution, deforestation, contamination, and drying up of riv- ers, lakes, and lagoons, destruction of biological diversity, as well as disappearance and loss of our natural resources, in other words, it leads to poverty and unhappi- ness for the majority of the country’s population.
Hydrology
In Guatemala there are 38 rivers and their basins distributed between three hydrological basins: Pacific, Atlantic, and the Gulf of Mexico; 7 lakes, 49 coastal lagoons, 109 lagoons, 3 temporary lagoons, 7 water reservoirs. 14 out of 38 main riv- ers are severely polluted: Villalobos, Paz, Motagua, Suchiate, Naranjo, Salamá, Ican, Coyolate, María Linda rivers are contaminated with plastic, solid waste, wastewa- ter, and industrial waste.
Hydroelectric power plants
There are several hydroelectric power plants in Guatemala: Chixoy, Renace, Jurun Marinalá, and other.
Construction and installation of the plants caused social tensions as the gov- ernment failed to fulfill the condition on preliminary consultations and obtaining of preliminary free and informed consent of the population, which was also the
case for mining projects carried out on the lands of indigenous peoples and mes- tizos. Community lands are being expropriated. Besides, licenses are being issued without compliance with environmental and technical standards as a result of cor- ruption activities of the ministries of environment, energy, and mining.
Electricity production with the use of river resources resulted in their embez- zlement, due to which communities located downstream got deprived of vital moisture, and, in some cases, it caused severe floods. These communities are not getting electricity, as it is transferred to other regions and even abroad.
Solid waste management
Historically, there is no strategy of environmental protection in the country. There are no treatment facilities in large cities; wastewater and solid waste are dumped into rivers and turn into streams of sewage with time. Major rivers flow into lagoons, lakes, and the sea. Lakes Amatitlán and Atitlán, major tourist attrac- tions, are contaminated with solid waste, plastic, etc. The country is lacking waste recycling culture, garbage monitoring system, garbage trucks, waste management and recycling, and landfill construction. The main dump of Guatemala “is among 50 largest dumps in the world and 13 largest dumps in Latin America, its area is 19.3 ha, and it receives 300,000 tons of domestic, commercial, industrial, and sanitary waste annually”.
It was only in early 2025 that the law on environmental protection came into force, and it was for the first time offered to separate organic, recyclable, and non-recyclable waste. There is no state policy to promote development of educational programs in the area of environmental protection, as well as the cul- ture of solid waste recycling and utilization for the purpose of its processing and reuse.
Climate change
Poor communities, especially those residing in the inner regions of the country, are the most vulnerable to consequences of climate change. In recent years, the number of deaths and property destruction has increased due to more frequent natural disasters. Landslides, hill collapses, hurricanes, and trop- ical storms are on the rise; damage fr om the lack of rains increased, in par- ticular, in the Dry Corridor, wh ere the main crops got burned due to lack of water; malnutrition and hunger increased due to loss of crop. Extreme poverty that means, in particular, lack of decent housing, forces significant groups of the population to live in high-risk areas, such as river banks, hilltops, and vol- cano slopes, which exposes them to serious risks, including volcanic eruptions. There is no state policy in the country to prevent and mitigate consequences of such phenomena.
56.6 % of the population in Guatemala live in poverty or extreme poverty; they have no access to legal jobs, public healthcare, and social security, education and housing. At the same time, approximately 15 families represent oligarchy and bour- geoisie that own major means of production.
The state is dependent on the imperial policy of North America, on oligarchy, bourgeoisie, and generals’ junta using political structures in power and govern- ments for their own interests.
Conclusion
Ecological crisis in Guatemala results from existence of the system that still combines pre-capitalist and neoliberal capitalist forms and gives preference to consumer goods production to meet business interests, which pertains both to the nascent and almost non-existent national industry and major transnational corpo- rations continuously settling in the country without following a legal system that would provide for eco-friendly production and consumption.
The goal of such entrepreneurs is to gain enormous profits at any cost.
The society is historically divided into social classes; it is a deeply classist and racist society, in which suffering, exploitation, oppression, ethnic and cultural dis- crimination, and alienation become more acute day by day.
According to the worldview of the Mayan ancestors, man is in unity, in a vital union with Mother Nature. One should focus on this view and be guided by it in the management process.
However, there is no willingness to develop a state policy to promote socio- economic growth in order to meet vital human needs that would be based on development of the environment and technologies and support of national indus- try, energy conservation, environmental protection, clean energy, solid waste recycling, wastewater treatment, and water conservation. Goods production and consumption should be based on protection and priority of human life.
The way out of the crisis must be comprehensive, with participation of a strong state and with use of a strategy of sustainable state development. Socio-economic, ecological, and nature conservation crisis faced by the country can be overcome through implementation of the Peace Agreements — the only state program that exists in the country. Guatemala shall fit itself into the economic pole of the global South. It shall become a part of new platform for global growth based on the fun- damental principles of BRICS: consensus, fairness, and openness for the sake of wellbeing of mankind.
Towards comprehensive solutions
1. To provide material conditions for life support, growth, and socio-economic development of the overwhelming majority of the population by way of estab-
lishment of an economic model that is alternative to neoliberalism in view of the local specifics.
2. To support improved ecological awareness at all levels through state educa- tional policy.
3. To support creation of new laws on environmental protection and ecology; to strengthen and enforce existing laws.
4. Communities shall recover and ensure sustainable management of the forests, as they are the main element of terrestrial ecosystem that is the guarantee of human existence and development.
5. To support recycling and industrialization of solid waste in order to make it a source of income for the country.
6. To protect aquifers and ensure that water is suitable for human consumption.
7. International cooperation: establishment of allied and twinning liaisons between countries in order to ensure financing of programs, plans, and proj- ects in the area of clean, renewable, and sustainable energy.
The article presents the key elements for determination of the level of socio- economic development of Guatemala and how it is affected by the ecological crisis. It discusses the issues of land use, mining, and soil degradation; defor- estation, water pollution, river sequestration; climate change; and vulnerability to natural phenomena. As well as possible comprehensive solutions to over- come the ecological crisis and strengthen socio-economic development of the country.
Guatemala
Guatemala, a state in Central America that is known for its ancient culture, the cradle of the Mayan civilization, is rich in natural resources and has excep- tional biodiversity and ecosystems varying fr om tropical forests to coasts and volcanoes.
Geographical location, political and administrative division
The area of the country is 108,889 square kilometers. Political and administra- tive structure: 8 regions, 22 departments, and 340 municipalities.
Population
Four major peoples live in Guatemala: Mayans, Xincas, Garifunas and Mesti- zos, the total number of which exceeds 14,901,296 residents, of which 6,207,503 are Mayans, 19,529 — Garifunas, 264,167 — Xincas, and 8,346,120 — Mestizos, 27,647 — Creoles or people of African descent, and 36,320 foreigners. Gender composition of the population: 7,237,582 men and 7,663,314 women. The population growth rate is 2.5 % (INE, 2018).
Expected survival at birth: 74.3 %, average period of study is 6.6 years, per cap- ita income is 8,494, and human capital development index is 0.663. Human cap- ital development index is lower than in Latin American and Caribbean countries wh ere it is 0.766.
61.6 % of the population live in poverty or extreme poverty. They have no access to official jobs, public healthcare, social security, education, and housing.
Geomorphological formation of the territory
60 % of surface of Guatemala is represented by mountainous relief; Sierra Madre crosses the country fr om the West to the East, runs parallel to Pacific Ocean, and extends to Honduras via Cerro Oscuro. Cuchumatanes mountain range extends to the North from the Chixoy, or Negro, river wh ere it gets divided into two parts: Verapaz mountains in the East and Cuchumatanes in the West. It is one of the most volcanically active countries in the world: there are 38 volcanos here. Due to the multiple orographic folds it is subject to constant earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes (MARN, 2009).
Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARN) divides the ter- ritory into seven regions: Pacific plains, volcanic highlands, metamorphic high- lands, Northern limestone plateaus, Northern limestone lowlands, and Northern floodplains. They are divided into 14 land regions, each of which includes various land ecosystems in the country: wet, mountain, and dry forests; pine-oak for- ests, thorny bushes, and mangroves. This is a country with plenty of forests and well-developed forestry industry. Soils are heterogeneous due to the diversity of geological, orographic, and lithic conditions, as well as formation processes: Entisols, Mollisols, Inceptisols, Vertisols, Alfisols, Andisols, Ultisols (MARN, 2009).
Aquatic biodiversity of the country is divided into two fish habitats: Pacific and Caribbean. They consist of four ecoregions sharing 14 watershed ecological units that contain 204 riverine ecosystems and 19 stagnant or lake ecosystems (MARN, 2009).
Hydrography. Mountain systems define three hydrographic slopes: the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean that is divided into the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. There are multiple rivers, lakes, and lagoons of volcanic and river origin within the territory.
Biodiversity of the country (0.07 % of the planet’s land area) according to the most common approaches. Terrestrial ecosystems of the country can be grouped into nine biomes (Villar, 1994), 14 Holdridge life zones, and 14 terrestrial ecoregions (Dinerstein, et al., 1995), (MARN, 2009).
Bioregionalization of the continental shelf and coast. Marine space of Guate- mala is divided into two districts: the Eastern Pacific Ocean and the tropical north- western Atlantic Ocean that include marine ecoregions.
Physicochemical components correspond to the atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere; biological components correspond to the biosphere, and social ones — to the sociosphere (Gallopin, 1980).
Land use
Land is the main means of production in Guatemala.
Land distribution is uneven: 98 % belong to large estates owning the most fer- tile lands. They belong to 2 % of the population, i. e. oligarchs and bourgeoisie. 2 % of lands are distributed between small landownerships owned by 98 % of the pop- ulation: Maya, Garifuna, Xinca, and poor Ladino (Mestizos).
Large estates are concentrated in the departments of Escuintla, Retalhuleu, Suchitepéquez, Izabal, as well as in the Polochic river valley, Alta Verapaz depart- ment. These are fertile lands with high potential for usage; they can be cultivated without physical destruction of the soil1.
Small estates are the small lots of barren land located on hills and slopes that are usually owned or possessed by middle-income and poor peasants. Their prod- ucts are mainly meant for family consumption, as they are insufficient for large- scale commercial activities.
Monoculture, mining, land degradation, and biodiversity
In recent years, monoculture production has increased in large estates. Lands are intensively used for sowing, growing, and harvesting of sugar cane for production of sugar and its derivatives, as well as African palm — for production of oils and fats. Culti- vation of original crops such as corn, black beans, and rice for domestic consumption, sale, and export to Central America has been destroyed in these areas, which forces import of these basic food items for majority of the country’s population and weakens food security and economy of the country. Use of transgenic seeds has expanded.
1 US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Food.
Intensive exploitation of lands accompanied by excessive use of insecticides and pesticides and deforestation due to excessive logging operations cause deg- radation of soils and their biodiversity, including loss of soil fertility that cannot be recovered in less than 20 years. Deforestation of Guatemala reaches 1 % a year, which is the highest rate in Latin America.
Open-pit mining
There is vast amount of minerals such as nickel, rare earths, jade, gold, tung- sten, manganese, etc. within the territory of Guatemala.
The following mining companies are operating in the country: Goldcorp, a transnational company that operates via Montana gold exploration company and Marlin that mines gold in open-pit in San Marcos; Entre Mares, a mining project in Cerro Blanco, Jutiapa. Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel, S.A — CGN, subsidiary of Solway Investment Group, is involved in mining and sale of nickel.
The Ministry of Energy and Mines approves licenses for exploration, extraction, production, and commercial use of oil, gold, nickel, jade, and other min- erals. It is known that there are rare earth metals that are being mined. Contracts are very burdensome; companies retain 99 % of the product, and the government retains 1 % royalty.
At present, mining leads to incurable diseases, deterioration of living condi- tions, environmental pollution, deforestation, contamination, and drying up of riv- ers, lakes, and lagoons, destruction of biological diversity, as well as disappearance and loss of our natural resources, in other words, it leads to poverty and unhappi- ness for the majority of the country’s population.
Hydrology
In Guatemala there are 38 rivers and their basins distributed between three hydrological basins: Pacific, Atlantic, and the Gulf of Mexico; 7 lakes, 49 coastal lagoons, 109 lagoons, 3 temporary lagoons, 7 water reservoirs. 14 out of 38 main riv- ers are severely polluted: Villalobos, Paz, Motagua, Suchiate, Naranjo, Salamá, Ican, Coyolate, María Linda rivers are contaminated with plastic, solid waste, wastewa- ter, and industrial waste.
Hydroelectric power plants
There are several hydroelectric power plants in Guatemala: Chixoy, Renace, Jurun Marinalá, and other.
Construction and installation of the plants caused social tensions as the gov- ernment failed to fulfill the condition on preliminary consultations and obtaining of preliminary free and informed consent of the population, which was also the
case for mining projects carried out on the lands of indigenous peoples and mes- tizos. Community lands are being expropriated. Besides, licenses are being issued without compliance with environmental and technical standards as a result of cor- ruption activities of the ministries of environment, energy, and mining.
Electricity production with the use of river resources resulted in their embez- zlement, due to which communities located downstream got deprived of vital moisture, and, in some cases, it caused severe floods. These communities are not getting electricity, as it is transferred to other regions and even abroad.
Solid waste management
Historically, there is no strategy of environmental protection in the country. There are no treatment facilities in large cities; wastewater and solid waste are dumped into rivers and turn into streams of sewage with time. Major rivers flow into lagoons, lakes, and the sea. Lakes Amatitlán and Atitlán, major tourist attrac- tions, are contaminated with solid waste, plastic, etc. The country is lacking waste recycling culture, garbage monitoring system, garbage trucks, waste management and recycling, and landfill construction. The main dump of Guatemala “is among 50 largest dumps in the world and 13 largest dumps in Latin America, its area is 19.3 ha, and it receives 300,000 tons of domestic, commercial, industrial, and sanitary waste annually”.
It was only in early 2025 that the law on environmental protection came into force, and it was for the first time offered to separate organic, recyclable, and non-recyclable waste. There is no state policy to promote development of educational programs in the area of environmental protection, as well as the cul- ture of solid waste recycling and utilization for the purpose of its processing and reuse.
Climate change
Poor communities, especially those residing in the inner regions of the country, are the most vulnerable to consequences of climate change. In recent years, the number of deaths and property destruction has increased due to more frequent natural disasters. Landslides, hill collapses, hurricanes, and trop- ical storms are on the rise; damage fr om the lack of rains increased, in par- ticular, in the Dry Corridor, wh ere the main crops got burned due to lack of water; malnutrition and hunger increased due to loss of crop. Extreme poverty that means, in particular, lack of decent housing, forces significant groups of the population to live in high-risk areas, such as river banks, hilltops, and vol- cano slopes, which exposes them to serious risks, including volcanic eruptions. There is no state policy in the country to prevent and mitigate consequences of such phenomena.
56.6 % of the population in Guatemala live in poverty or extreme poverty; they have no access to legal jobs, public healthcare, and social security, education and housing. At the same time, approximately 15 families represent oligarchy and bour- geoisie that own major means of production.
The state is dependent on the imperial policy of North America, on oligarchy, bourgeoisie, and generals’ junta using political structures in power and govern- ments for their own interests.
Conclusion
Ecological crisis in Guatemala results from existence of the system that still combines pre-capitalist and neoliberal capitalist forms and gives preference to consumer goods production to meet business interests, which pertains both to the nascent and almost non-existent national industry and major transnational corpo- rations continuously settling in the country without following a legal system that would provide for eco-friendly production and consumption.
The goal of such entrepreneurs is to gain enormous profits at any cost.
The society is historically divided into social classes; it is a deeply classist and racist society, in which suffering, exploitation, oppression, ethnic and cultural dis- crimination, and alienation become more acute day by day.
According to the worldview of the Mayan ancestors, man is in unity, in a vital union with Mother Nature. One should focus on this view and be guided by it in the management process.
However, there is no willingness to develop a state policy to promote socio- economic growth in order to meet vital human needs that would be based on development of the environment and technologies and support of national indus- try, energy conservation, environmental protection, clean energy, solid waste recycling, wastewater treatment, and water conservation. Goods production and consumption should be based on protection and priority of human life.
The way out of the crisis must be comprehensive, with participation of a strong state and with use of a strategy of sustainable state development. Socio-economic, ecological, and nature conservation crisis faced by the country can be overcome through implementation of the Peace Agreements — the only state program that exists in the country. Guatemala shall fit itself into the economic pole of the global South. It shall become a part of new platform for global growth based on the fun- damental principles of BRICS: consensus, fairness, and openness for the sake of wellbeing of mankind.
Towards comprehensive solutions
1. To provide material conditions for life support, growth, and socio-economic development of the overwhelming majority of the population by way of estab-
lishment of an economic model that is alternative to neoliberalism in view of the local specifics.
2. To support improved ecological awareness at all levels through state educa- tional policy.
3. To support creation of new laws on environmental protection and ecology; to strengthen and enforce existing laws.
4. Communities shall recover and ensure sustainable management of the forests, as they are the main element of terrestrial ecosystem that is the guarantee of human existence and development.
5. To support recycling and industrialization of solid waste in order to make it a source of income for the country.
6. To protect aquifers and ensure that water is suitable for human consumption.
7. International cooperation: establishment of allied and twinning liaisons between countries in order to ensure financing of programs, plans, and proj- ects in the area of clean, renewable, and sustainable energy.
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