Guatemala

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Culture

The Guatemala National Prize in Literature is a one-time only award that recognizes an individual writer's body of work. It has been given annually since 1988 by the Ministry of Culture and Sports. Guatemala City is home to many of the nation’s libraries and museums, including the National Archives, the National Library, and the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, which has an extensive collection of Maya artifacts. There are private museums, such as the Ixchel, which focuses on textiles, and the Popol Vuh, which focuses on Mayan archeology. Both museums are housed inside the Universidad Francisco Marroquín campus. The Colonial Museum, in Antigua Guatemala, has large exhibits of colonial artwork. Almost each of the 329 municipalities in the country has a small museum. Tikal National Park has fine local museums, as well as the Dolores, Petén, "South Petén Regional Maya Museum". Two theaters in the country are the most famous, the "Teatro Nacional de Guatemala", a 1970s architectural structure, in Guatemala City, and the Quetzaltenango National Theater, a Neo-Colonial style building. Miguel Angel Asturias, won the Literature Nobel Prize in 1966. The Rabinal Achí, a Maya Kek'chi' play, was declared a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

Biodiversity and Ecology

Manglar and blue hegret in the Pacific Lowlands, Guatemala

According to Parkswatch and the IUCN[1], Guatemala is considered the fifth Biodiversity Hot Spot in the world[2]. The country has 14 ecoregions ranging from Mangrove forest (4 species), in both ocean littorals with 5 different ecosystems, Dry forest and Thorn bushes in the Eastern Highlands, Subtropical and Tropical rain forest, Wetlands, Cloud Humid forest in the Verapaz region, Mix and Pine forest in the Highlands. 36.3% or about 3,938,000 hectares of Guatemala is forested (2005). Of this, 49.7% or roughly 1,957,000 hectares is classified as primary forest, the most biodiverse form of forest. including 17 Conifer (Pines, Cypress and the endemic Abies guatemalensis) species, the most in any Tropical region of the world. Guatemala has listed 252 wetlands, including 5 lakes, 61 lagoons. 100 rivers, 3 swamps[6]PDF (63.1 KiB), 6 of those wetlands are of international importance or RAMSAR sites[3]. Tikal National Park, with 11 micro climes in it, was the first mix UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the world. Guatemala has some 1246 known species of amphibians, birds, mammals and reptiles according to figures from the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Of these, 6.7% are endemic, meaning they exist in no other country, and 8.1% are threatened species. Guatemala is home to at least 8681 species of vascular plants, of which 13.5% are endemic. 5.4% of Guatemala is protected under IUCN categories I-V. Guatemala has the largest percentage of Protected areas in Central America, with a total of 91 protected areas and more than 28% of the territory as a protected area. [4].^{[citation needed]}