Mesoamerica extends from central Mexico south along the Middle American isthmus. It’s the cradle of one of the world’s most advanced ancient civilizations, a region marked by diverse but linked cultures and vibrant riverine ecosystems. This region gave rise to numerous important domesticated crops, including corn, beans, squash, tomatoes and cotton. It’s also home to remarkable ecosystem diversity, from arid highlands to sub-tropical lowlands.
The second-largest rainforest in the Americas, after the Amazon, is found in Honduras and Nicarauga: La Mosquitia.
Hydropower projects have brought human rights abuses in their wake, however. One of the worst crimes occurred in Guatemala, where thousands of people were displaced and hundreds kidnapped and massacred to make way for the Chixoy Dam in the early 1980s.
We fought for reparations for survivors of the Río Negro massacres for years; the first reparations checks were finally cut in 2015, more than three decades after the atrocities. We have also helped successfully protect river communities along Mexico’s Papagayo River and Honduras’ Patuca River from harmful dam development.
Still, hundreds of proposed large dams, planned with very little transparency under the Mesoamerica Plan, continue to threaten the rivers of Central America and Mexico, along with the economies of communities that rely on these rivers for their livelihood. The dams would impact fish stocks and coastal ecosystems, wetlands and mangroves that contain many plant and animal species, some still undiscovered.
Our Work in Mesoamerica
A growing civil society movement questions the Mesoamerica Plan. Communities are concerned about the systematic exclusion of rural populations in the decision-making process, and the profound impacts on communities, ecosystems and local economies.
Swimming in the Changuinola River in La Amistad, Panama | Photo by: Hugo Sanchez and Marcio Bonilla. 
A Mayan Achi Elder | Photo by Otto Perez
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By: Monti Aquirre, Latin America Program Director A ceremony to honor Mother Earth was the first thing the Maya Achí did when they learned their first reparations checks were going … Read more