Who’s Working on It

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These groups are listed because public sources show them working on Lake Atitlán or on closely related problems. A listing is not an endorsement. No group has asked to be listed or paid to be listed. We could not confirm that every group is active today, and many small efforts do not appear online at all. If we have something wrong or have missed a group, please tell us.

Where groups disagree, we say so; the main disputes are summarized on What Might Work.

Sunrise over Lake Atitlán
Sunrise over the lake.

Government and science

AMSCLAE, the lake authority

The Authority for the Sustainable Management of the Lake Atitlán Basin (AMSCLAE) is the government agency responsible for the lake. It publishes the cyanobacteria alert levels and monitoring reports, helps municipalities with waste and wastewater, and runs tree nurseries and agroforestry programs. In 2025 it reported waste studies in San Pedro and other towns, and a tree nursery in San Pedro with the national protected-areas agency.1 Its website lists a phone number, (502) 7961-6464, and the email informacion@amsclae.gob.gt.2

Ministry of Environment (MARN)

In October 2025 the Ministry announced sanctions against all 15 municipalities in the basin, San Pedro among them, for breaking wastewater rules.3 A later report says those sanctions, and 39 criminal complaints about lake contamination, have not moved forward.4

Centro de Estudios Atitlán, Universidad del Valle de Guatemala

The university’s lake research center samples the lake monthly together with AMSCLAE, as it has since 2013.5

In San Pedro La Laguna

The municipality

In 2016 San Pedro became the first municipality in Guatemala to ban single-use plastic and Styrofoam.6 It runs a waste plant that makes compost from organic waste, recycles cardboard and glass, and sends the rest to a landfill. Residents pay Q1 per garbage bag and the municipality covers about 80% of the cost.7 In 2025 it adopted a lake-protection ordinance, which local critics say conflicts with some of the municipality’s own actions.8

Guardianas del Lago (Lake Guardians)

About 180 women in 14 groups from San Pedro hold monthly shoreline cleanups and quarterly underwater cleanups with volunteer firefighter divers.9 On February 8, 2025, they and 55 volunteer divers removed about 1,500 pounds of waste.10

Tz’unun Ya’ collective

Formed in 2017 in opposition to the pipeline proposal, the Tz’unun Ya’ collective of Tz’utujil women works on cleanups, legal challenges and education. It advocates ending chemical fertilizer, using household biodigesters, and making companies responsible for their packaging waste.11,6

Non-profits and programs

Asociación Amigos del Lago de Atitlán

Founded in 1990 and based in Panajachel. Its school program, Educando para Conservar, had reached 250 schools and more than 18,000 students by 2023.12 It also runs recycling programs. It is also the proposer of the pipeline that San Pedro leaders have opposed (see What Might Work).13

Vivamos Mejor

A Guatemalan non-profit working in Sololá since 1989. It reports producing and planting more than three million native trees and plants over ten years, and training community firefighters who built 50 km of firebreaks.14

CreaSol Permaculture

A permaculture school and farm above the lake. The founder reports that the San Pedro municipality hired the group to design an eco-park to handle seasonal flooding and polluted runoff using swales and native reeds. He says the design stalled in bureaucracy and budget, and that volunteers did some of the earthworks.15 The group’s website lists larger plans and targets.16

Water4Life Global

A US-based non-profit working at the lake since 2019, with local educators in several towns including San Pedro. It reports a household greywater treatment system in Santa Cruz La Laguna, running since January 2024, serving about 15 families.17 Its team page names Granja Tz’ikin (CreaSol’s farm), Wellkind, Rotary and a local soap collective as partners.18

Mosan

A social enterprise that collects waste from waterless toilets and turns it into biochar and a fertilizer mineral. With Vivamos Mejor and researchers at ETH Zurich it has tested biochar on tree seedlings and crops.19,20

Asociación Natün

Supports women-led climate-resilient farming in the Sololá area: 250 women trained in 2024, with field schools and tree planting.21

Teravana Trust (formerly Wellkind)

A US trust working in eight towns on the lake’s northern shore, including tree planting and women’s artisan cooperatives. It does not work in San Pedro.22

How the groups relate

  • AMSCLAE and the university center carry out the monthly monitoring together.5
  • AMSCLAE’s 2025 report credits cleanups to joint work with the municipalities, the boat operators’ association, the Tz’unun Ya’ collective and the volunteer firefighter divers, and recycling centers to work with Amigos del Lago.1
  • Water4Life, CreaSol, Wellkind and Rotary are listed together on Water4Life’s partner page.18
  • Tz’unun Ya’ and Amigos del Lago have disagreed publicly over the pipeline proposal for years.
  • We found no published sign of cooperation between the permaculture and water groups and the lake authority’s group. That may only mean it has not been published.

About this page

This page was compiled from public sources in October 2026. It has not yet been reviewed by people in San Pedro,. If you know something we have missed or got wrong, such as a correction, a local study, a group’s work or your own experience, please send it to contact@sanpedrolalaguna.earth. We will read it and add or correct what we can confirm.

Sources

  1. AMSCLAE, “Memoria de labores 2025” (the authority’s own annual report), March 2026. Link
  2. AMSCLAE (Autoridad para el Manejo Sustentable de la Cuenca del Lago de Atitlán y su Entorno), official website. Link
  3. Agencia Ocote, “Municipalidades de la cuenca del lago Atitlán son sancionadas por contaminación,” October 10, 2025. Link
  4. Ojo con mi Pisto, “Atitlán: 39 denuncias por contaminación siguen varadas en la Fiscalía.” Link
  5. AMSCLAE, “Informe monitoreo limnológico 2025,” December 2025 (the lake authority’s own report). Link
  6. La Cuerda (Guatemalan community periodical), “San Pedro la Laguna: acción y propuesta,” December 9, 2022. Link
  7. Agencia Ocote, “La procesión de la basura,” February 7, 2023. Link
  8. Prensa Comunitaria, “Reglamento municipal de San Pedro La Laguna para proteger el lago tiene contradicciones,” August 2025. Link
  9. Agencia Ocote, “La comunidad que limpia a la abuela lago,” September 16, 2024. Link
  10. Prensa Comunitaria, “Mujeres limpian el lago de Atitlán mientras empresas y autoridades evaden responsabilidad,” March 2025. Link
  11. Green Network Asia, “The Tz’ununya’ Collective, Indigenous Mayan Women Who Protect Lake Atitlán.” Link
  12. Noticias Green Press, “Educando para Conservar impulsa la sostenibilidad para preservar el Lago de Atitlán,” November 25, 2023. Link
  13. Asociación Amigos del Lago de Atitlán, website (it did not load reliably for us). Link
  14. Vivamos Mejor Guatemala, “Impacto” page (the organization’s own figures). Link
  15. Hegarty, N., “The hardest part of restoring a lake isn’t the engineering,” CreaSol Permaculture newsletter, August 3, 2026 (the organization’s own account). Link
  16. CreaSol Permaculture, “Save Lake Atitlán” page (plans and targets, not results). Link
  17. Water4Life Global, “Our solutions” (the organization’s own description of the Tzanjomel greywater system). Link
  18. Water4Life Global, “Our team” page, listing partners (the organization’s own statement). Link
  19. Mosan, “About” (the company’s own description). Link
  20. Vivamos Mejor, “Collaboration between Mosan and Vivamos Mejor” (the organizations’ own report of trial results). Link
  21. UNDP Adaptation, “How women’s leadership and traditional farming are protecting Guatemala’s Lake Atitlán” (the program’s own figures). Link
  22. GuideStar profile of Teravana Trust (formerly Wellkind Trust). Link