Boris Mendez Paiz

Boris Mendez is an Engineer in Natural Renewable Resources; he received his degree in his home country, Guatemala in 1992. He worked as an Officer of the National Council of Protected Areas, the State Organization in charge of the Administration of the Protected Areas System of Guatemala. He worked there in the Northern Lowlands of the Country as part of the technical team in charge of developing the regulations for Concessions in the forest of the Maya Biosphere Reserve, the largest Protected Area of Central America. Later he moved to the highlands of the country where he worked as a consultant forester, preparing and providing advisory for implementing management Plans of natural conifer and mixed forests in private farms of small and medium size owners.

In 1996 he became a permanent and full time Teacher at the School of Agriculture of the State University of San Carlos, in Guatemala City, the capital of the nation. Since then his duties include teaching, research and extension in Natural Resource Management, focused in Forestry issues. After graduation at Yale, he will return to Guatemala to continue working for University but also as a consultant in Forestry and Natural Resources. Guatemala is being rebuilt now after the sign of a Peace Agreement in 1996, which put an end to a long and destructive civil war. The work in the environment is particularly crucial for a densely populated country where 80% of people continue living in poverty and with an economy based on natural resource use.