Encyclopedia classes

UNIVERSAL ENCYCLOPEDIAS : Various disciplines influence. That is why they are usually the
largest encyclopedias, in which the entries are arranged alphabetically.

THEMATIC ENCYCLOPEDIAS : The content is organized by themes. That is why it is common for
each one to be separated internally by titles or other resources.

DISCIPLINARY ENCYCLOPEDIAS : The entries are related to a particular discipline. The

difference is in the amount of information it offers.

DIGITAL ENCYCLOPEDIAS : These are encyclopedias stored on compact discs or the Internet.
The advantage is that they take up less space and contain more information and it is easier to
keep them updated.

ENCYCLOPEDIC DICTIONARIES : They are a mixture of language dictionaries and universal

encyclopedias.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a free, polyglot and collaboratively

edited encyclopedia. It has more than 46 million
articles in 288 languages, which have been jointly
written by volunteers from all over the world.
Virtually anyone with access to the project can edit
them.

Everipedia

Everipedia is the next generation encyclopedia rebuilt for the modern era. With more than 6 million
articles and counting, it is already the largest English-language encyclopedia in the world by
content. It is free of ads and free to use for all users under the Creative Commons license.
Free Universal Encyclopedia in Spanish

The Universal Free Encyclopedia in Spanish is a project to develop through the Internet a free
and free encyclopedia in Spanish in which everyone can collaborate by creating new articles or
expanding existing ones, and participating in the many activities that we have prepared.

citizendium

Citizendium is a “citizen compendium above all”, it is an open wiki project dedicated to creating a
free, complete and reliable repository of structured knowledge. Their community is based on the
principles of trust and respect; Taxpayers, or “citizens,” work under their own real names, and all
are expected to behave professionally and responsibly. Furthermore, experts are invited to play a
role in overseeing knowledge structuring.
Basededatos.com

BasedeDatos.com is a project that aims to collect, organize and store all possible information to
facilitate its subsequent use and consultation. The platform allows users to edit content so that they
can contribute their knowledge, opinions and ideas to the project.

Encyclopedia.com

Encyclopedia.com provides reference content from credible and public sources, such as Oxford
University Press and Columbia Encyclopedia . You get free access to nearly 200,000 reference
entries and more than 50,000 related topic summaries including images, videos, topic summaries,
newspaper and magazine articles from around the world.

Vikidia

Vikidia is an interactive web encyclopedia written for children ages 8 to 13, in the role of readers
and editors (although not exclusively). Although it is not the only audience it is open to, it is also for
adults who have learning difficulties, those who want to learn Spanish or simply those who are
looking for a simple presentation of something they do not know may find it useful.

Enciclopèdia.cat

The Enciclòpedia.cat portal currently contains 40

works, with more than 700,000 articles and 39,000
illustrations. The Great Catalan Encyclopedia and the
Dictionary of the Language are free access. To consult
the rest of the works, which are also free to access, you
must register.

Encyclopaedia Britannica
The Encyclopaedia Britannica is a verified encyclopedia that allows you to explore hundreds of
thousands of objective articles, biographies, videos and images of experts.

Enciclonet 3.0

Enciclonet is a general purpose

online encyclopedia in Spanish. It
is based on the Universal
Micronet Encyclopedia , and has
185,000 articles and more than
20,500 multimedia elements. It is
available in freemium mode,
which means that some of the
content can be consulted for free
and another requires a paid
subscription.

General encyclopedia

A general encyclopedia covers a wide range of topics in the form of short articles written by
recognized experts. Due to the large number of topics covered, the information contained in this
type of encyclopedia has limited depth. However, even without going deeper, this information
provides sufficient knowledge, keywords and possible sources for further research.

Historically, general encyclopedias were organized alphabetically and printed in volumes with the
intention of being included in schools. More contemporary versions, such as the Encyclopedia
Britannica , are available online, and are regularly updated by experts.

Encyclopedia of specific topics

If what you are looking for in a topic or topic is depth beyond what a general encyclopedia offers,
then you should go to the specific encyclopedia.

For example, if you want to know about astronomy in general or its disciplines in science, you will
search in a general encyclopedia. A specific encyclopedia, on the other hand, will provide detailed
knowledge about specific topics, such as dark matter or supernovae.

These encyclopedias also include bibliographies that help in finding books and articles related to
the required field of research. Many university libraries have print and online versions of specific
encyclopedias, such as the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Astronomy.

Encyclopedia of countries and regions

This type of encyclopedias began to be used at the end of the 9th century. They are considered
geographical encyclopedias because they cover in detail both countries and metropolises as well
as small cities, towns and islands.
Prominent examples of this type of encyclopedia are Westermanns Lexikon der Geographie and
Meyer's Oceans and Continents.

Encyclopedia for children

They date back to times before the 21st century, however, those considered the best were printed
in the mid-20th century. They contain articles on diverse and essential topics, explained in a simple
way and with plenty of illustrations. They are aimed both at educating and at being an aid for the
training of the little ones.

Examples of children's encyclopedias are: Compton Encyclopedia and Fact Index, Junior
Encyclopedia Britannica, and Oxford Junior Encyclopedia.

Encyclopedic Dictionary

They appear for the first time in the 16th century, but reach their peak between the 17th and 18th
centuries. They are reference works, organized alphabetically, that contain articles that represent
nouns in depth.

A good example of an encyclopedic dictionary is the Larousse Encyclopedic Dictionary.

Types of modern encyclopedia

Electronic encyclopedia

In this digital world, information is available instantly and things change quickly. To evolve with
such a connected society, many encyclopedias have moved their print versions to the web. The
editors and expert contributors of the electronic encyclopedia are usually similar (or the same) as
their printed versions.

Such online sources of knowledge allow both students and teachers to have quick and up-to-date
access. This eliminates the old barriers to knowledge derived from the high price and great
physical weight of traditional encyclopedias.

An example of an electronic encyclopedia is World Book Online , which offers a subscription-

based version. There is also Scholarpedia , which is a free, exclusively online database.

Open collaboration encyclopedia ( crowdsourcing )

Knowledge crowdsourcing has become a simple way to accumulate information in the digital age.
Online encyclopedias and forums, such as Wikipedia, are the best example of crowdsourcing .
They are popular places for amateurs and experts alike, who want to share their knowledge with
the world.

These are often criticized by experts, stating that they have a questionable range of credibility.
Others, however, believe that the ability to have unlimited input, criticism, and fact-checking makes
them reliable sources.
 Some researchers from the University of California Irvine analyzed the articles presented on
Wikipedia during 2010. According to them, featured articles demonstrated high-quality information
86% of the time.

In contrast, non-featured articles offered a similar level of quality 74% of the time. The above
indicates that the content increased its quality as the article was subjected to review.

GUATEMALAN TERRITORIALITY

The government of Guatemala is constituted over a delimited territorial space of 108,889km 2, over
which it has jurisdiction. Due to its geographical location and relief, the Guatemalan territory has a
variety of microclimates and an extensive wealth of natural resources and raw materials. Our
country is a point of interest for companies dedicated to the exploitation of natural resources. Due
to this, numerous local communities are involved in conflicts to defend the territory they inhabit.
Two types of disputes are identified: first, those caused by transnational companies for control of
territory for the exploitation of their resources. On the other hand, there is the increase in control
over the territory by drug trafficking and organized crime for their illicit activities.

Guatemala is one of the countries on the continent with an indigenous majority (6 million
inhabitants (60%), distributed in 23 ethnic groups), where indigenous territoriality, understood as
the capacity of control and decision that an ethnic group has over its own space, is exercised at
two rhythms. On the one hand, legitimate territoriality, which is expressed in the constant struggle
that communities carry out in order to assert their rights over their space, their resources and their
own institutions; and on the other hand a denied territoriality, which is manifested in the set of
policies, ideologies and laws that the State maintains with the objective of imposing a single
system of territorial political organization of the country, where indigenous aspirations are
permanently nullified.

Political division
To facilitate the organization of the country and the participation of citizens, the territory is
organized into eight regions, 22 departments and 333 municipalities. Each department has a
governor appointed by the President of the Republic and who acts as the highest authority, as he
 or she acts as a representative of the Executive Branch. The highest authority of the municipality is
the mayor.

· Physical Geography
The geographical characterization of the country is a product of the movement of tectonic plates,
which has led to the creation of two primordial mountain bodies that cross and divide the
Guatemalan territory into three large segments: to the north, a plain made up mainly of the
department of Peten ; in the central area of the country, valleys located between the two mountain
chains, which are mostly irrigated by rivers that flow through basins delimited by the mountains;
and the southern bocacosta, which begins after the Sierra Madre and reaches the coasts of the
Pacific Ocean.

· Human geography
Guatemala is inhabited by more than 13 million inhabitants, making it the most populated country
in Central America. The majority of the indigenous population lives in rural areas, although there is
also a presence of a smaller Ladino or mestizo population. In urban centers the predominant
presence of the ladino or mestizo population is identified; accompanied by a smaller proportion of
the indigenous population.

· Land use and tenure

Currently, 57% of the land is in the possession of less than 2% of the producers. Few farms control
more than half of the land, while numerous peasant families have access to a minimum amount of
land for the production of food for their own and national consumption. The large areas are
dedicated to permanent crops for export, while the medium and small areas are cultivated for
family and national consumption. As long as peasant families have access to land, and use it for
local production and commerce, Guatemalan society is guaranteed food and prices that are more
stable than international supply.

· Housing and basic services

To guarantee the population a dignified and healthy life, it is essential to generate physical and
social infrastructure of basic services and the guarantee of housing for all its inhabitants. Among
the basic services, those that respond to basic needs are identified: sanitation, drinking water,
access to electricity and health services, education, citizen security and housing. The UN
considers that the offer of services should be evaluated based on four parameters: accessibility,
cultural relevance, quality of services and availability.

Characteristics of

Guatemala

Guatemala , officially known as the Republic of Guatemala , is a sovereign nation of the Central
American continent , whose territory was part of ancient Mesoamerica , one of the cradles of
civilization, and birthplace of the Mayan and Olmec cultures.

Like many Central American nations, Guatemala combines the historical heritage of the Spanish
colony with the remnants of pre-Columbian civilizations that emerged in ancient times.

Its territory, mostly mountainous, is rich in biotic reserves and has great ecological beauty, in
addition to being a reservoir of numerous important archaeological niches.

Its population, mostly mestizo and indigenous, faces important challenges inherited from its history
of dictatorships, revolutions and a Civil War, as well as significant margins of poverty and
economic inequality.

Their name is Guatemalan and Guatemalan , and their currency is the Quetzal.

Characteristics of Guatemala

1. Limits and territorial extension

Guatemala is located in Central America and borders Mexico to the north and west, Belize and the
Gulf of Honduras to the east, and Honduras, El Salvador and the Pacific Ocean to the south.

The surface of its territory covers some 108,889 km2, one of the smallest on the continent. Of it,
400 km are coastline.
 2. Name

The name Guatemala comes from a Nahuatl word: Quauhtlemallan , which translates “Place of
many trees.”

3. Capital

The capital of Guatemala is Guatemala City, whose official name is Nueva Guatemala de la
Asunción. There are the headquarters of the Guatemalan public power and the headquarters of the
Central American Parliament.

Its estimated population is more than 4,700,000 people, taking into account its entire metropolitan
area, which makes it the most populated urban center in Central America. The city has been rebuilt
numerous times due to natural disasters, mostly earthquakes.

4. Geography

The territory of Guatemala is mostly mountainous, especially from Northwest to Southwest, where
it has a chain of plateaus known as the Guatemalan Highlands.

The maximum height of the region is the Sierra Madre, with abundant volcanoes such as
Tajumulco (4,220 meters above sea level) and Tacaná (4,092 meters above sea level), the highest
in the subcontinent.

Despite its small size, the country has a very high biodiversity and abundance of biomes (7), which
range from beaches on the Pacific coast to low plains and mountain ranges.

It includes fourteen ecoregions and second place in terms of species described in the region.

In addition, it has seven Ramsar sites, wetlands of great importance, although up to 252 have been
counted throughout the country.
 The territory of Guatemala is mostly
mountainous.

5. Climate

Guatemala has a great variety of climates. Around the central plateau it tends to be rather
temperate, with an average temperature of 15 °C annually, while towards the coasts the climate
tends to be tropical , hot and humid.

The mountainous areas have a cold mountain climate, except in the eastern areas where it
becomes arid and hot. Rainfall in Guatemala takes place between May and November, and is
greater in the northern part of the territory (between 1525 mm and 2540 mm).

6. Population

Guatemala has an approximate population of 16,051,208 inhabitants (2014), with an average

density of 142.6 inhabitants per square kilometer.

It is mostly mestizo (41%) or indigenous (39.9%), but there is also a white (18.5%) and black
(1.0%) presence, given its history of multiple colonizing presence (Spanish, Belgian, German and
American).

The Guatemalan population faces significant levels of poverty and social and economic inequality,
calculated at approximately 55% poverty, of which 15% is in extreme poverty, and made up mainly
of rural poverty (82%). The illiteracy rate is around 30% of the population and life expectancy is 65
years.

7. Economy

Considered the tenth largest economy in Latin America, Guatemala is a developing country. Its
main economic area is agriculture, since it is the largest exporter of cardamom in the world, fifth
place in sugar exports and seventh in coffee production.

Another vital economic sector is tourism, which generates the country's second largest income of
foreign currency, as well as remittances from Guatemalans who emigrated mainly to the United
States, where there are some 1.2 million inhabitants, most of them undocumented.

8. Culture
Guatemala is a secular country, that is, without an official religion, although the Catholic (45%) and
evangelical (44%) religions are the most predominant numerically, and there is a syncretic variant
of the polytheistic, pagan Mayan religion that worships to Rilaj Maam (“The Great Grandfather”).

Many indigenous traditions are preserved hybridized with the Catholic tradition and are practiced
on festive dates, in dances and traditional foods. On the other hand, the official language is
Spanish, although many of the country's numerous ethnic groups speak it as a second language or
not at all.

There are twenty-one Mayan languages spoken in rural areas in Gatemala; a non-Mayan
Amerindian language, called Xinca, spoken in the southeast of the country; and an Arawak
language, called Garífuna, spoken on its Atlantic coast. Furthermore, Guatemala is the fourth Latin
American country in number of English speakers.

Guatemala's contribution to Hispanic literature has as its greatest exponent Miguel Ángel Asturias,
winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1967.

9. Pre-Columbian ruins

The current territory of Guatemala was part of Mesoamerica, one of the pre-Columbian regions
with the greatest cultural and demographic fertility on the continent, and one of the cradles of
human civilization.

In particular, the Olmec (1500 BC – 500 BC) and Mayan (8000 BC-1697 AD) cultures prospered,
of which numerous archaeological niches and buildings remain in Guatemala, such as Tikal, an
entire Mayan city located in the department of Petén, or Uaxactún, in the same region, a city
whose splendor took place around 900 AD

10. History

The history of Guatemala begins with the Spanish colony, once the Mexica Empire and its
neighboring cultures were defeated and absorbed by the Kingdom of Spain, creating the first
settlement in the territory of present-day Guatemala in 1524, called Santiago de Guatemala.
During this colonial era, the Captaincy General of Guatemala was attached to the Viceroyalty of
New Spain, with its capital in Mexico City.

Independence from Spain took place in the 19th century and Guatemala joined the First Mexican
Empire that replaced the Viceroyalty, but which was extremely brief and from which Guatemala
and the rest of Central America would separate in 1823, thus forming the United Provinces of the
Center of America, later called the Federal Republic of Central America.

This was followed, as in many young American republics, by an internal struggle between liberals
and conservatives to define the destiny of power, which translated into totalitarian governments
and armed insurrections.

Finally, in 1944, Guatemala emerged from the dictatorship of General Ubico Castañeda and began
a process of modernization often called the “ Golden Age ” of Guatemala, until tensions between
pro-North American and communist interests led to confrontation between guerrillas of armed
insurrection and counterrevolutionary military governments, faced in a Civil War. Peace and
democracy would return in 1987.

GEOGRAPHICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF GUATEMALA

Guatemala, located in the heart of the

intertropical region, has a warm and
humid climate in which important
climatic variations, due to its changes in
altitude and the orientation of its relief. It
is worth highlighting three major
climatic regions: hot lands (up to 1,000
m altitude), temperate lands (1,000-
2,000 m) and
cold (above 2,000 m).

Regarding its relief, it is dominated by

the presence of a high mountain system
that crosses the western sector of the
country, from Mexico to El Salvador.
Here is the Tajamulco with an altitude of
4,220 meters, the highest in all of
Central America, and the Motagua
River, which is the longest in the country, 400 km long.

Demographically, the population is the largest of the states in the Central American isthmus,
registering high growth, with one of the highest birth rates in the area, only surpassed by
Nicaragua. Its geographical distribution is irregular; the densities of the high basins of the west
(more than 200 inhabitants/km2) contrast with those of Petén (6 inhabitants/km2), those of the
Caribbean plains or those that exist next to Izabal (practically without population).
A high percentage of the country's inhabitants belong to Mayan ethnolinguistic groups that
preserve the cultural heritage of their ancestors. There are also mestizos, in addition to the
inhabitants of the Caribbean coast, who maintain their Afro-Caribbean roots.

Economically, it is characterized by the predominance of the agricultural sector (coffee, sugar

cane, cotton and bananas), which reaches 26% of the gross domestic product. The industry (19%
of GDP), whose expansion occurred in the sixties and seventies, is the most important in Central
America.
Physical appearance of Guatemala

The Relief of the territory of Guatemala is a term that refers to the physical appearance of the
territory owned by Guatemala , which in general terms can be described as varied, since there are
plains whose height above sea level does not exceed 200 or 300 meters, as well as such as steep
regions, high mountains and volcanoes , valleys and plateaus of different heights (Historical
Biographical Dictionary, 2004).

To the south, on the Pacific coast , which has a length of 254.7 km, is the region called South
Coast, a plain that is 50 km in its widest part, and an elevation between 0, more or less, 300
meters above sea level. sea level (Historical Biographical Dictionary, 2004).

The esplanade rises abruptly to the north, to a chain of volcanoes that is a distinctive feature of the
country's geographic landscape. This volcanic chain crosses the national territory from west to
east, from the Tacaná and Tajumulco volcanoes located on the border with Mexico and which
reach heights of more than 4000 meters, to the Chingo volcano -1775 meters above sea level-, on
the border with El Salvador. The Pacaya volcanoes -2552 meters above sea level-, Santiaguito -
2,300 meters above sea level- and Fuego -3763 meters above sea level- are the most active
(Historical Biographical Dictionary, 2004).

The rugged region, between the coastal plain and the volcanic chain, is known as Bocacosta .
Further north is the Altiplano , that is, the Highlands, a mountainous region, with plateaus and
valleys, from where the largest rivers in the country rush. This is the central part of the territory,
and the most populated since pre-Hispanic times . Guatemala City and other important urban
centers are located there. At the western end of the Altiplano the Sierra Madre and Los
Cuchumatanes rise. Towards the east, the mountain system includes the Chamá, Santa Cruz, El
Mico, Las Minas and El Merendón mountain ranges (Historical Biographical Dictionary, 2004).

The Altiplano descends in the north, towards a region known as the Queen Zone, which also has
rich soils, favorable to agricultural development. In the extreme north, there are the Petén
Lowlands, and in the northeast, the Atlantic coast (Historical Biographical Dictionary, 2004).
 Main environmental problems in Guatemala

Environmental problems most of the time are not caused naturally, humans are the ones who
cause them, due to lack of education and ecological awareness, but apart from environmental
problems, Guatemala has other problems of a social nature.
Among the main environmental problems in Guatemala have:
1. Deforestation
Deforestation is a major problem throughout the tropics. The lack of
control in the felling of trees, especially hard and precious woods, is
increasing. Subsistence farming is practiced by millions of people,
who cultivate the land by burning a part of the forest and planting
crops in apparently rich soil. The problem is that despite the lush
appearance of the forest, the underlying soil is not fertile. Its fertility
is not inherent, it comes from a complex interaction of the plants,
trees, bacteria and insects that live only in the forest. After burning
 the forest, crops can only grow for a couple of years before the soil is depleted and the farmer
moves on to burn another section of forest, leaving behind dead space, directly exposed to the
scorching sun and heat. torrential rain. The land takes many years to recover and sometimes it
never recovers. Furthermore, if the mulch is lost, the land will never fully recover and the mulch will
end up in rivers and streams, causing additional ecological disturbance downstream. Even if the
fertility of the land was restored, it would never truly return to its original state, as we will discuss
later.
The saddest aspect of forest destruction is the loss of species. The rain forest is a virtual laboratory
of interdependent bacteria, mosses, lichens, bromeliads, epiphytes, trees and insects. Most of
these have not even been cataloged, much less studied. Some of the most beneficial medical
discoveries in recent times have come from rainforest life forms. It has been learned that each part
of the forest contains some unique species that evolved and live only in this part of the forest.
Every square mile of forest reveals new species unique to that area. When that part of the forest is
destroyed, the species unique to that part are lost forever.

2. Loss of biodiversity
They are a set of pressures that remain on biodiversity and promote environmental degradation in
Guatemala.
Biodiversity is basic for the sustainable development of Guatemala . Elements such as the range of
genes, ecosystems and species that characterize Guatemala play a role in the ecological
mechanism of the human population and the natural processes necessary for the survival of the
human species and animals.
Anthropogenic threats to biodiversity are those that occur due to human activities such as land
erosion, deforestation, pollution, legal and illegal logging, forest fires, introduction of invasive exotic
species, illegal wildlife trafficking and advance of agricultural and livestock frontier.
Natural threats to biodiversity are those that manifest themselves without human intervention, such
as earthquakes, earthquakes, tidal waves, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, cyclones and floods.
Global threats to biodiversity are those that have an impact on the globe, such as climate
variations resulting from climate change and phenomena related to the effects of El Niño and La
Niña.
3. Deterioration of soils
Soil is a natural resource that corresponds to the upper layer of the Earth's crust. It contains water
and nutritional elements that living beings use. The soil is vital, since human beings depend on it
for the production of food, raising animals, planting trees, obtaining water and some mineral
resources, among other things. It supports and nourishes plants in their growth and, therefore,
conditions the entire development of the ecosystem .
Soil erosion is accelerating on all continents and is degrading some 2 billion hectares of crop and
grazing land, posing a serious threat to global food supplies. Every year, soil erosion and other
forms of land degradation cause the loss of between 5 and 7 million hectares of arable land.
In underdeveloped countries, the growing need for food and firewood has resulted in deforestation
and cultivation of steep slopes, which has produced severe slope erosion. To further complicate
the problem, there is the loss of prime farmland due to industry, swamps, the expansion of cities
and roads. Soil erosion and the loss of cropland and forests further reduce the moisture holding
capacity of soils and add sediment to streams, lakes and reservoirs.
 Soils have a certain capacity to assimilate human interventions without entering into deterioration
processes. However, this capacity has been widely exceeded in many places, as a consequence
of the production and accumulation of industrial, mining or urban waste .
Another activity with environmental risk of soil contamination is mining, due to its power to modify
the landscape and its discharges of toxic waste.
The soil is also contaminated by residues of pesticides and other agrochemicals, such as
herbicides and fertilizers . Some of them remain in the soil, and from there they integrate into food
chains, increasing their concentration as they advance through the trophic level.
4. Reduction of water resources
The challenges for the management of water resources in Guatemala cannot be treated in
isolation, due to cause and effect relationships, such as: wealth in water resources, access to
water and challenges in sanitation.
The pressure on water resources in Guatemala is also due to the distribution of domestic users. In
general, population concentrations are greater in regions where water availability is low, due to
altitude or rainfall deficit, and the opposite is true in regions where water resources are abundant.
For example, Guatemala City is home to more than 20% (3.2 million) of the country's population.
However, the valley where the city is located straddles the Continental Divide . The city's location
near the continental divide explains why nearby rivers have minimal flows. This amounts to small
amounts of surface water and inadequate sources of groundwater that cannot provide all of the
city's needs.
The main challenges to water resources management in Guatemala include the impact of
deforestation, water pollution, lack of hydrological data, and deficiencies in institutional
coordination. Deforestation - and the resulting sedimentation of surface waters - is due to poor land
use planning for agriculture, timber market demands, and urban development. The growth of
industrial sectors has led to an increase in runoff of harmful pollutants into rivers, streams, and has
caused leaching into groundwater. At the institutional level, the management of water resources in
Guatemala is shared by several government agencies and institutions.

5. Deterioration of coastal-marine resources

The coastal marine resources of Guatemala are made up of different species of fish, crustaceans
and mollusks and ecosystems located in the marine-coastal zone located between the coastline
and the limit of the exclusive economic zone of Guatemala, 200 miles from the coast. , and the
area between the coastline and the zone of influence of salinity on the coast, up to a maximum of
10 km. land up. Depending on their components and physiobiological processes, they constitute a
relevant part of the country's natural capital, offering a series of environmental services (fauna
habitat, protection of coastal lands, regulation and exchange of salinity with inland waters of the
coast, beauty scenic, among others). Coastal marine resources offer a series of possibilities to the
populations that live around them, who use them for different purposes, such as food, commerce,
construction, the provision of conditions for crops. self-consumption and commercial, and
recreation, among others. This section makes particular reference to the resources of the country's
coastlines (Pacific and Atlantic) used in fishing activity (industrial, artisanal and sports),
consequently generating food, services, employment and foreign currency. It includes the
conditions in which special ecosystems such as mangroves and coral reefs are found and the main
actions regarding the conservation and protection of marine-coastal species and ecosystems.

6. Pollution by agrochemicals
The most impactful effects of agrochemicals on the environment are expressed in the
environmental quality of flora and fauna, and the strong ecological impact on ecosystems and agro
 ecosystems. The flora and fauna that are not subject to pesticide control suffer the direct and
indirect deadly effects of these agrochemicals. The use of pesticides that are not very or not at all
selective has fatal effects on biological control agents (spiders, insects, reptiles, amphibians); on
pollinating agents; they cause phytotoxicity in native and cultivated plants; and creation of
resistance and tolerance in pests. The agricultural growth model based on intensive use of
chemicals and a low level of use of agroecological principles, a product of obsolete and polluting
technologies but with greater productivity, has displaced native sociocultural styles, which had low
environmental impact, but lower productivity.
The drastic decrease in the cotton area, due to the growing rise in the price of chemical inputs
used inappropriately in an increasingly intensive manner, and the fall in international cotton prices,
announced the limits of this intensive chemical method without balance or agroecological
principles.
Guatemala is the only country in the Central American Region where chemical products for
pesticides are produced. The largest pesticides produced are: camphechlor, propanil,
chlorodimeform, methamidophos and trifuralin. In addition, chemicals for many other pesticides are
imported into Guatemala, for their formulation and subsequent export to neighboring countries.

7. Pollution from waste and emissions

The liquid that the garbage sweats filters the earth and makes contact with the underground
aquifers, contaminating the waters that are for human consumption. This thick, foul-smelling liquid
contains zinc oxide and other acids, as well as countless amounts of bacteria that are a high risk to
human health.
It is pertinent to point out that the families that reside in precarious conditions around the landfill
are vulnerable to health problems, due to lack of drinking water and public services, lack of security
in the construction of their homes, due to being established in unsafe places. such as ravine slopes
and because of this, they can be exposed to accidents, natural disasters and environmental
pollution.
8. Contamination by solid waste
The solid waste found within the landfill contributes to global warming, since the organic matter,
through decomposition, poor management in its compaction and lack of control in its release,
generates methane gas.
According to Grande, this gas does not indirectly cause danger to humans but it does cause global
warming since when it is emitted it forms a barrier that prevents solar rays from leaving the
atmosphere. He explained that another harmful situation that is generated in that place is
contamination in the aquifers, which occurs when leachate (liquid resulting from a process of
percolation of a fluid through a solid) lacks adequate control through drains and sinks so that they
can be released.

9. Atmospheric emissions

It is the discharge of certain substances into the atmosphere. Thermoelectric plants are considered
important sources of atmospheric emissions and can affect air quality in the local or regional area.
From the Latin emissio, the term emission is related to the action and effect of emitting (throwing or
casting something out, putting securities or securities into circulation, expressing an opinion or
judgment, launching Hercian waves to disseminate information ).

Accelerated soil erosion

This is due to the lack of appropriate soil conservation techniques,
especially in densely populated areas.

Pollution due to the use of agrochemical products

The use of insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, and other products has resulted in an increase in
agricultural production, but their excessive use damages the country's environment.

Air pollution

The main cause being vehicle exhaust, both gasoline and diesel. The gases produced are
dangerous, containing agents that can cause cancer.

Water contamination

Which is caused by the deposit of waste of all types in rivers, lakes and seas, among which waste
generated by humans stands out mainly.

Food Contamination
Chlorinated pesticides, which mainly affect meat and milk, affect products for domestic
consumption, since there are control services, but only for exports.

Need for Water in Guatemala

Freshwater is vital for people, as well as for agriculture, industry, urban development, fish farming,
transportation, hydroelectric generation and other activities.

In many areas of the world, there is widespread water scarcity, destruction and pollution of rivers
and lakes, which is partly due to the lack of awareness and education of the population about the
need to protect water.

That is why we see that in Guatemala not all homes have drinking water, since many families,
especially in rural areas, do not receive water through pipes but have to bring it from distant
places, since not all houses have adequate drainage service. In rural areas, almost a quarter of
the homes lack some type of drainage for sewage.