Proyecto Ecológico Sol y Verde is a 20 acre permaculture education institute, reforestation center, and botanical garden with a private lake ecosystem adjacent to the 2000 acre protected Cerro Cahui Biotope reserve. Working with international non-profits, the Guatemalan military, and conservation volunteers from around the world, we teach local children and farmers nature conservation, permaculture, and sustainable self-sufficiency principles through regular community events and field trips to our site.
Sol y Verde founded our first Youth Group, the Crocodiles, with 15 kids under age 14 from the neighborhood. These kids learn leadership, environmental stewardship, organic farming, and community outreach through activities held by Proyecto Ecologico Sol y Verde. When donations come, our youth groups receive school supplies, backpacks, shoes, toys, food and other help that makes huge differences in their lives!
Sol y Verde has a tree nursery where we produce thousands of native forestry trees and fruit trees every year, many of which are endangered species. These trees and planting services are either sold at a fair price or donated to local land owners in the Maya Biosphere Reserve.
Integral components to our permaculture education and production system:
- Multi-tier canopy (multi-strata agroforestry) of bread nut trees, ice-cream bean trees, mahogany, Spanish Cedar, and native secondary tree species with an understory of vanilla, chocolate (cacao) trees, turmeric, and ginger, taro, pacaya (native edible palms)
- Bananas, plantains, papaya, sugarcane, yuca, chiles, and taro root in our Zone 3 pioneer (sunny) areas
- Quails and chickens (formerly had rabbits) for organic fertilizer production and eggs in Zone 1 & 2
- Worm compost unit for organic fertilizer production
- Tilapia pond
- Natural water retention swale and terrace system
- Zone 2 jungle garden with eggplant, chiles, tree spinach, herbs, medicinals, native leaf greens, moringa, Tithonia (for green manure and pollinators)
- Reproduction of over 15 medicinal plants species
- Tree nursery with capacity for 3000 fruit trees and native forestry species
During the 2020 growing season, Sol y Verde managed a 1.5 acre off-site experimental polyculture milpa where we cultivated yellow and white corn, several varieties of beans, pigeon peas, tomatoes, squash, and watermelon among a reforestation of the two principal wood bearing native trees: Spanish cedar and Big-leafy Mahogany. These experiments are always import to test new growing methods for cultural and climatic appropriateness. These last two criteria are of pivotal importance in our mission to change the culture of agriculture and land use among farming families in the Maya Biosphere Reserve.
