One man, thousands of trees and heaps of determination: how regreening Guatemala transformed a village

Local volunteers help reforestation efforts organised by environmentalists near Pachaj, a village in the highlands of western Guatemala. The Chico Mendes Reforestation Project has planted abut 2,000 trees since it began in the 1990s. Photograph: Zach Mordan/Courtesy of Chico Mendes

Armando López Pocol is showing off some of the thousands of trees he has planted in Pachaj, his village in the highlands of western Guatemala, when he suddenly halts his white pickup truck. Alongside an American volunteer, Lyndon Hauge, he gazes out over a charred field. Clouds of smoke are still billowing from the ground.

As he walks through the ash-covered field, his optimistic speech turns to sadness and he pauses in silence to take in the barren landscape.