Guatemala - Contour Lines
Sean Dixon-SullivanOrganization Name
CONTOUR LINES
Website
Country
Guatemala and United States
Region or area served
Livingston, Antigua, Peten, El Estor, Morales, Puerto Barrios and Alta Verapaz (Guatemala) and southern Appalachia (US) and counting....
Individual Name
Sean Dixon-Sullivan
Date Founded
Jun 2018
Trainers trained in 2021
35
Trainers trained to date
60
Formal Training
Historical Studies, Stockton College of New Jersey, in a past life. Regen Ag and Eco Restoration self-taught.
Specializations
Agroforestry, Regenerative Agriculture, Tree Nursery, Community Organizing, Value-added products and marketing, Ecosystem Restoration (rainforest, mangrove, cloud forest), Soil Conservation
Workshops conducted in 2021
18
Workshop attendees in 2021
180
% of men vs. women participate in project
60/40
Farms that implemented Agroforestry in 2021
400
Farms that implemented Agroforestry to date
700 and counting
Trees planted in 2021
130k
Number of trees planted to date:
210k
Hectares planted in 2021:
75
Hectares planted to date:
150
Percentage of nitrogen fixing trees vs. percentage of edibles:
5:1 legumes
Location of demonstration site
Livingston, Guatemala
About organization

Our vision is a landscape of rural communities with the skills, resources, and knowledge to manage their lands in both sustainable and productive manner. That is the most efficient and truthful manner, one that advances both humans and nature. Our goal is to transition land into such uses, mainly agroforestry with mandatory soil conservation practices. We do this through raising funds, then providing participant communities with the fruit trees, tools, and training to establish these agroforestry systems, and through hiring a local team of technicians to organize these communities, train and supervise, while purchasing and value-adding harvests. This support incentivizes these communities to adopt the soil conservation practices, to transition their lands to regenerative agroforestry.
Impacts
Ecological impacts include preventing soil erosion and improving biodiversity, carbon sequestration water infiltration and habitat. Economic benefits include food security as well as income from harvests, value-adding, hosting tours and workshops, selling seed to other projects, and generally a transition away from land use systems that exported only corn and firewood while reducing land's fertility and relied on foreign imports, to biodiverse production systems that improve fertility and build local economies.
Summary
Contour Lines is a soil-conservation nonprofit. We work with rural communities, transitioning their lands to regenerative agroforestry systems. We provide the trees, tools and training, not as "charity to the poor" but as work grants to campesinos, with performance-based agreements that support those most interested in empowering their communities and restoring their lands.