Guatemala Swaps Debt For Nature

Guatemala has signed an agreement with the US to swap $24 million of debt owed for conservation of specially designated regions within the country, known as a debt-for-nature swap. The agreement seeks to conserve Guatemala’s high-altitude cloud forests, rain forests, and coastal mangrove swamps. Guatemala is one of only six countries eligible under the 1998 Tropical Forest Conservation Act (TFCA) to benefit from debt relief of certain official debt owed to the US. In June, Paraguay – another of the six eligible countries – swapped $6.5 million of debt owed to the US under the same scheme.