“What we thought was impossible became possible”

Charles Alexander Wood Sambola is a member of the fire brigade in Truktsinasta. Fire on the plain has been a problem for as long as he has lived here. People knew how to set it, he says, but not how to control it, and two or three people could not change that on their own.

The idea to protect the savanna came from the community itself. Together with their own leaders, they approached Paskaia to ask for help with strategy and equipment. Before, the patrols did not even have bicycles. Now the brigade has suits, boots, vests, gear to fight fire and tools to build the firebreaks. As a community, that is something they never had before.

What we thought was impossible became possible.
Charles Alexander Wood Sambola

After four years of protection the savanna is regenerating, and the deer are coming back, the armadillos, the tepescuintles, the iguanas, the parrots.

Interviewed in 2026 in La Mosquitia. Quotes translated from Spanish.