Arcas Wildlife Rescue and Conservation Association Ltd

ARCAS's goals include educating and raising awareness on wildlife trafficking in the US, as well as raising funds for wildlife conservation efforts in Guatemala to accomplish the following objectives:

The conservation, preservation, protection and research of wildlife and the habitat it needs to survive.
The rescue, rehabilitation and reintroduction into their natural habitat of wild animals seized from illegal traffickers.
The promotion and assistance in the creation and management of protected habitat areas for wild animals.
Support to tropical wildlife veterinary medicine and research.
Raising awareness about the need to conserve natural resources through a program of education and information dissemination.
Developing and promoting economic alternatives in rural communities to the unsustainable consumption of natural resources.

ARCAS supports integrated efforts to conserve the biodiversity of Guatemala, by educating and raising awareness in the United States of the following and by providing grants and technical expertise in Guatemala to carry out:
(a) Environmental education;
(b) The management protected areas;
(c) Networking, fundraising and advocacy for the conservation of endangered species and their habitat;
(d) Wildlife rescue, rehabilitation and release;
(e) Captive breeding of endangered species for release;
(f) Sea turtle conservation and research;
(g) Mangrove conservation and research;
(h) Sustainable community development (efficient wood-burning stoves, gender, ecotourism and small-business development); and
(i) Wildlife trafficking enforcement activities.

ARCAS is an Illinois non-profit corporation formed in 2019 whose main focus is supporting biodiversity conservation, the management of protected areas, sustainable community development, and environmental education in Guatemala. It strives to accomplish this by educating and raising awareness in the United States of these efforts as well as raising funds and conducting outreach efforts in the US for these efforts. It is made up of a multi-disciplinary team of professionals with experience working, living in, and visiting Guatemala concerned with the deteriorating state of the rich biological legacy of the country.

Since 1998, individuals who are now ARCAS board members have participated in and provided funding for wildlife conservation in Guatemala, including organizing ecotours to support wildlife rescue and environmental education efforts, providing technical expertise in the development of projects and fundraising, conducting fundraising in the US in support of wildlife conservation efforts in Guatemala, and facilitating wildlife lobbying and advocacy efforts carried out in the US.

In 2019 these individuals decided to formalize their activities in a concerted effort and established the 501(c)(3) company ARCAS Wildlife Rescue and Conservation Association, Ltd (ARCAS USA).

ARCAS USA focuses on three areas:

1. Rescue, rehabilitation and release of Guatemalan wildlife. ARCAS receives 300-600 animals per year, the majority confiscated by government authorities from traffickers operating in the Maya Biosphere Reserve (MBR), the Pacific coast and other parts of the country. It also collaborates in efforts to educate Guatemalan young people and visiting tourists as to the incredible damage caused by the illegal wildlife trade. It carries out research on this trade, and works with its government counterparts to carry out enforcement activities.

2. Protected Areas The rescue and rehabilitation of endangered species makes no sense unless they have appropriate habitat into which they can be released. ARCAS works to establish and administer protected areas for wildlife. It established and is the administrator of the Hawaii Marine Protected Area, a 10,000 acre protected area that includes some of the most important sea turtle nesting beaches and mangrove wetlands in the country. It manages a 115 acre protected area just south of the MBR, a private wildlife reserve of 65 acres in the Hawaii area and collaborates in the management of other protected areas.

3. In situ conservation and research ARCAS also focuses on in situ conservation of species of wildlife such as the olive ridley sea turtle, scarlet macaw, spider monkey and the yellow-naped amazon that are high value targets for the illegal wildlife trade and are in danger of extinction. It breeds non-releasable scarlet macaws, and releases the offspring into the MBR in order to re-inforce severely depleted populations of this charismatic bird, estimated to number under 300 individuals in Guatemala. It is protecting nests and combatting trafficking of the yellow-naped amazon on the Pacific coast of the country, a species listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN with only an estimated 400 individuals left in the wild in Guatemala. Since 2013, ARCAS has carried out sea turtle population monitoring along the Pacific coast in an attempt to ensure the survival of the olive ridley, hawksbill and leatherback turtles that nest there.