Sierra de las Minas biosphere reserve

One of the last truly wild places in Guatemala is a two-mile-tall, 30-mile-wide, east-west mountain range that runs for roughly 100 miles through the country's southeast highlands. The mountains encompass parts of the Baja Verapaz and Izabal departments, beginning about 50 air miles east of Guatemala City.

Saving the ecologically dynamic wilderness of the rugged Sierra de las Minas has been a primary focus of the Guatemalan conservation group Defensores de la Naturaleza (Defenders of Nature). Much of these mountain lands have been given a protective status through the decisive actions of Defensores and the Guatemalan government, with help from Conservation International, World Wildlife Fund, Swedish Children's Rainforest, and several other nonprofit organizations.