AgroParisTech at the heart of environmental diplomacy in Guatemala

From March 2 to 22, 2026, a group of MS FNS-MI students traveled to Guatemala as part of a group mission titled, “What management challenges does the Trifinio Fraternidad biosphere reserve face?” Located at the tri-border region of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, this cross-border area is characterized by complex environmental, socioeconomic, and climate challenges. The mission, carried out under the Forestt-Hub PEPR and co-organized with CIRAD and Plan Trifinio, a trinational regional cooperation organization, aimed to analyze the multi-stakeholder governance dynamics at work in this territory under significant pressure.

On March 4, the students and their supervisors were received at the National Palace of Culture in Guatemala City by the Vice President of the Republic, Ms. Karin Herrera. This meeting, organized to present the mission’s objectives, also provided an opportunity to initiate a dialogue on prospects for academic and scientific cooperation between AgroParisTech and Guatemalan institutions. The following day, a meeting with local institutional stakeholders of the Trifinio Plan was held in Esquipulas, at the offices of the Trinational Commission, laying the groundwork for the upcoming fieldwork.

On March 20, the mission’s closing session was held in the heart of the biosphere reserve, in the community of Portezuelo. The presentation of the students’ work took place in the presence of the Vice President of Guatemala, the presidential representative from Honduras, representatives of the Trifinio Plan, and the Regional Cooperation Advisor from the French Embassy in Guatemala. The students presented their analyses of the reserve’s governance, its climate vulnerabilities, and the tensions between local development and conservation. Following the session, a bilateral Guatemala–Honduras meeting was held, highlighting the territory’s political significance and the relevance of the academic perspective provided by AgroParisTech.

Beyond the academic exercise, this mission demonstrates AgroParisTech’s ability to engage in high-level institutional and diplomatic initiatives on issues that lie at the heart of its expertise: natural resource governance, management of cross-border territories, and environmental public policies in the context of climate vulnerability. The institution’s presence in this forum for regional political dialogue opens up concrete opportunities for cooperation with the Trifinio Plan, the French Embassy in Guatemala, and Guatemalan institutions: scientific partnerships, student exchanges, and future missions. This initiative lays the groundwork for AgroParisTech’s long-term presence in a region where the challenges of sustainable forest and natural resource management call precisely for the type of interdisciplinary and international expertise offered by the MS FNS-MI program.