ARCAS is a non-profit Guatemalan NGO formed in 1989 by a group of Guatemalan citizens who became concerned as they saw their precious natural heritage - especially their wildlife - rapidly disappearing before their eyes. It was originally created for a very specific and urgent purpose: to build a rescue center to care for and rehabilitate wild animals that were being confiscated on the black market by the Guatemalan government.
Guatemalan NGO, through social aid, seeks to improve the living conditions of families, children, education, preventive health and nutrition programs to reduce diseases and causes of death due to malnutrition.
Like many other Latin American countries that share the Pacific and Caribbean coastline, Guatemala is experiencing a crisis of development and overfishing, exacerbated by the lack of opportunities, income alternatives and the scarcity of scientific knowledge about the true state of the different fishery resource populations, mainly chondrichthyans. Faced with this situation, Mundo Azul Foundation has initiated its efforts to generate scientific information that advances the level of knowledge about sharks, rays and other fisheries.