May Our Dreams Fly Like Birds
August 28, 2025
Written by Diana Eusse and Matt Reiter
MSP+ Science to Action Program Officers
The MSP+ Science to Action grants program continues to spread its wings. This past June, we had the opportunity to visit two projects in Guatemala supported under the 2024–2025 funding round. Since joining the MSP network in 2019, partners in Guatemala have built a strong alliance, forming a network deeply committed to the conservation of shorebirds and coastal habitats. With creativity and perseverance, they’ve successfully engaged municipal authorities, productive sectors such as salt production and shrimp farms and tourism, and local and educational communities.
Guatemala’s Pacific coast is a distinctive landscape: a flat coastal plain that contrasts with the volcanic mountain range of the country’s interior. Here, short and fast-flowing rivers carry sediments that nourish a diverse and fertile coast, with wide sandbars that protect intertidal mudflats, beaches, and mangroves. It is a region of high ecological and human dynamism, where social, economic, and environmental processes converge, reflecting the richness and complexity of the Americas.
This fertile landscape has fueled agricultural, agro-industrial, and urban development—but it has also created opportunities for conservation. Our visit was a clear example of this potential, as we got to experience two MSP+ initiatives up close.
With José Moreira, Rocio Silva and Miriam Castillo from WCS Guatemala, we visited the project “Strengthening a Community Network of Youth to Conserve Shorebirds and Their Habitat Along the Pacific Migratory Flyway.” In the municipality of La Nueva Concepción, conservation is not just an aspiration—it’s part of the municipal agenda. We spoke with the mayor and members of the council about plans for waste management, the development of the boardwalk in Las Lisas, and the promotion of local tourism. There was even time to talk about soccer, a vital part of life across Latin America.
We had the privilege of taking part in the first Shorebird Festival in the municipality, celebrated with students and teachers from INEB Tecojate. We enjoyed costumes, poetry, and art inspired by shorebirds. It was a joyful, educational, and energizing event that clearly showed young people are not just learning—they are leading change. The festival was supported by the Municipality, government organizations, civil society, and private companies.
Together with the team from Defensores de la Naturaleza, we also visited two shrimp farms participating in another MSP+ project: “From Knowledge to Action: Accelerating Shorebird Conservation in Guatemala’s Shrimp Farming Industry.” There, Varinia Sagastume, Lorena Flores and María Andrea Bolaños lead trainings for shrimp farm workers, using an adult learning approach that includes audiovisual materials, participatory assessments to encourage understanding and reflection, and a strong connection to local realities.
The visits highlighted both contrasts and opportunities. One farm, focused on intensive shrimp production, includes unused ponds that offer high potential for aquatic and shorebird habitat restoration. The other, a semi-intensive and highly technical operation, integrates natural mangrove areas that support breeding colonies of white ibis (Eudocimus albus) and roseate spoonbill (Platalea ajaja), along with both migratory and resident shorebirds. These productive landscapes, when managed with wildlife-friendly practices, are increasingly becoming allies in biodiversity conservation.
Back in Guatemala City, we met with Ingrid Arias, Bianca Bosarreyes, and Mirnamaría Galindo from FUNDAECO, who are leading a shorebird conservation project in artisanal salt flats: “Artisanal Salt and Shorebirds Find a Common Future on the Pacific Coast .” This meeting was especially meaningful as the team gave us a hand-painted cloth made by the children and youth participating in their educational modules—young people who also work alongside their families in the salt flats. The cloth carried a simple but powerful message: May our dreams fly like birds.
We closed the week with a space for collaboration at the meeting of Guatemala’s Advisory Committee on Waterbird and Shorebird Conservation, which brought together all three MSP+ beneficiary organizations, researchers, and government representatives. It was a clear example of how joint efforts are creating real, sustainable, and valuable impacts for national decision-making.
We returned from this trip with new understanding, smiles, and unforgettable memories—the shared meals, the landscapes we explored, the honest conversations, and, above all, the certainty that shorebirds are not alone on their journey. More and more people, communities, and institutions are standing with them. And we also brought back something tangible: the cloth painted by the youth of Sipacate, now part of our collective heart—a symbol of creativity, hope, and a deep commitment to nature.