Territorial management involves actions promoting a sustainable use of the territory and the more rational use of the systems that compose it, to obtain certain goods and services. In this context, protected areas play a key role in conserving the productive base of natural resources and biological diversity. Territorial management must take into account the development of strategic plans that also include, in a transversal way, risk management and human rights.

Therefore, during October 27th – 28th, 2016, The 5th National Congress on Land Administration was held in Santa Elena, Petén, Guatemala. The thematic focus was “Protected Areas, Territorial Management and Life Quality, from Local to Global”.

The Centro Universitario de Petén (CUDEP), through the Careers as Land Planning Technician & Land Mangement Engineer, and the Program for the Protection and Sustainable Use of the Selva Maya from the German Technical Cooperation (GIZ); were organized to celebrate this national congress in the framework of the 10th Anniversary of the creation of the aforementioned careers, at the University of San Carlos in Guatemala, and given at its beginning in the Faculty of Agronomy, at the Centro Universitario de Occidente (CUNOC), Centro Universitario de Oriente (CUNORI) and the host Centro Universitario de Peten (CUDEP).

The Congress was attended by 175 people including students, teachers and professionals graduated from the university centers already mentioned, as well as other professionals from the University of San Carlos of Guatemala. This space allowed to have exchanges of experiences related to the central theme: the analysis of the different key aspects in the territorial management at political, social, economic, financial, technological and environmental level.

At the end of the congress, the importance of preserving the annual holding of this event in a rotating manner was emphasized, so it is expected to hold the next Congress in 2018 at the Centro Universitario de Oriente (CUNORI).