Bio-Itzá Association

Bio-Itzá Association is rated 3 out of 5 in the category philanthropy. Read and write reviews about Bio-Itzá Association. The Bio-Itzá Association was formed in 1991 in an effort to rescue the ancestral knowledge and traditions of the Maya Itzá culture and associated tropical forests in northern Guatemala. The nonprofit Association is operated by local community-minded indigenous people of Mayan descent. The Association was created to conserve the Bio-Itzá Biosphere Reserve, a 36km2 community forest reserve located 24 km to the northeast of San José. The reserve was established in 1991 as the first Cultural and Ethno botanical reserve in Guatemala. The reserve is made up of semi deciduous subtropical humid forest with mixtures of primary and secondary forest. It’s border with the El Zotz Biotope and proximity to Tikal National Park make the reserve a corridor for plant and animal species that have become increasingly more scarce in the Buffer Zone of the Maya Biosphere. The Bio-Itzá Association promotes the sustainable use of natural resources and responsible tourism. "We the Itzá, the last descendants of the Maya lineage in the Petén forest, are watching the forest vanish, its herbs and trees, the animals of its land and water. Our Mayan language is disappearing too, and the traditions of our great fathers. The forest is dying, the animals are dying, and we are dying also. To live, we need the forest, and the forest needs us. We must take care of the forest, and the forest must care for us, because we are partners of the jaguar, owner of the forest; partners of the scarlet macaw, ornament of the Mayas; partners of the tapir, animal of seven skins; partners of the mahogany, tree of our canoes; partners of the Ramón tree, the food of our ancestors; partners of the smoke of the copal tree, the spirit of our great ancestors. United together, we make our home in a piece of jungle, land of the Maya Itzás, on the shore of the great Lake Itza in San Jose, where once lived Kan Ek, the last Maya king."​ -Reginaldo Chayax Huex , BioItzá Assocation Director