Both the forestry market and the industrial market in Guatemala have weak links to domestic and international demand, so the lion's share of exports traditionally consists of low value-added products. It borders to the east with Belize, to the north and west with Mexico and to the south with the departments of Alta Verapaz and Izabal. This invaluable wealth, mainly managed under a community-forest management model aimed at the conservation of natural resources, justifies studying the value chain of wood products obtained from the department's forestry concessions. It also explains why the meta-objectives that have been defined point to increasing job creation in the zone, the strengthening of linkages between all links of the chain and between it and the rest of the country's forestry sector, greater participation by SMEs related to the value chain and, hence, a positive effect on the level of exports from the chain and the country at large. Outside that protected area, and others officially included in the same category, various mainly agriculture- related productive activities are undertaken, such as the production of basic grains (maize and beans) and African palm, along with livestock breeding.