FLAAR is available as a consultant, worldwide
If you wish to learn more about the plants (or animals) of Guatemala or nearby countries, we at FLAAR are a helpful resource. Our knowledge is more up to date on Guatemala but we have decades of experience in Belize, Mexico, and Honduras as well.
We are familiar with food plants, plants for basketry and handicrafts, spices, condiments, and plants that provide jobs for local people plus have export potential for sale around the world.
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Knowing who to work with locally
We work with different people in Peten, Verapaz, Monterrico, Izabal and the area around Guatemala City. We can find resources in any other departamento of Guatemala as well. All our partners are Guatemalan.
Knowing where to go
A useful asset is that we know where to go to find plant species.
If we have not already been there, we know people who can assist you. Please realize, however, that we do not have any interest to be involved with export of endangered species whatsoever.
Security
We have experience with local security firms and know who to recommend. Our own security agent also knows cameras pretty well, and actually works primarily as a photo assistant (in addition to being a trained and licensed security person). He is also quite adept at finding the kinds of plants that we are looking for.
Reality check
Just please realize that our other web sites (on printing, digital photography, and Maya archaeology) are read by almost two million people a year. We gladly provide consulting services but please excuse us when we can’t answer every miscellaneous question from every reader. We need to conserve our time and resources to do research, prepare new pages, and update current pages of our web sites.
But if you have a project, we are available as consultants at reasonable albeit professional cost. We are also available for joint projects, but please be realistic. We have networking experience, we have field experience, we have enviable equipment and capable staff. But we are not floating in money. FLAAR has no rich family behind it; we have no commercial corporation providing funding for projects. We are a significant resource for intellectual and practical aspects, but not for raw cash.
Where an alliance with FLAAR works well is for individuals, teams, projects, institutions who seek a partner with experience on-the-ground, out in the forests, swamps, and fields. We have an American foundation to receive donations and a Guatemalan non-profit to handle things in Guatemala. We obviously have experience with digital photography, as you can notice from our www.digital-photography.org .
Technology capability and experience with networking
FLAAR has video capability available if needed. FLAAR also can handle animations and 3-dimensional scanning as long as there is a reasonable budget for such high-tech projects.
We are adept at learning what we do not yet have experience in. The teams at FLAAR are constantly adding new equipment, new software, and new programs. We enjoy challenges and rarely shirk from a task in botany or zoology.
No one single individual or institute can do everything. Our advantage is that we can network to provide a complete team with as many capable and experienced individuals as your project needs.
We are interested in all aspects of Mayan ethnobotany
We wish to develop projects to help local Maya communities. We enjoy working with and assisting the local people. It helps to have a North American foundation who already has over 40 years experience, plus has a Guatemalan non-profit institute already in-place.
We are interested in medicinal plants, in incense, in beverages, spices, flavorings, frangrances. What counts is that we are familiar with Guatemala, Mexico, Belize, and Honduras. Plus we can also assist in El Salvador and Costa Rica, since both countries were part of Mesoamerica.
Our experience includes animals, insects and eco-systems in addition to agriculture.
Dr Hellmuth worked with both Yale University and with Harvard University in archaeological projects in Peru, while a student. We have contacts in Peru in the business community as well (a member of our family was in the same class and same school in USA as children from leading families of Peru and Guatemala).
It should be obvious that we are interested in preservation and conservation.
We are especially interested in 3D scanning projects
We have experience with 3D scanning and 3D imaging software. We would be especially interested in teaming up with a university, museum, botanical garden, institute, organization, or corporation to scan more tropical plants which can assist the Maya people to better their lives.
Consultants for agriculture, including organic crops
Dr Hellmuth grew up on a farm in Missouri, and has spent many years admist the milpas and homegardens of Belize, Honduras, Mexico, and Guatemala.
Consultant for Development of eco-tourism
We are especially interested in eco-tourism since this provides local people with jobs and a better future for themselves and their children. FLAAR has several decades experience in tourism, both organizing and operating tours, field trips, lecture programs, and conferences. We know the major hotels, the routes, and we understand what Europeans, North Americans, Asians, and other visitors expect.
FLAAR is also experienced in web site coding, development
We have over a decade in understanding the Internet. We can provide expert consulting in web sites and web commerce too. FLAAR has diverse specialists in all kinds of computer, software, coding, and other aspects of developing and maintaining web sites.
First posted June 28, 2011.
Most recently updated February 27, 2012.
