Guatemala is mountainous, except for the south coastal area and the vast northern lowlands of Petén department. The country is located in Central America and bounded to the north and west by Mexico, to the east by Belize and by the Gulf of Honduras, to the east by Honduras, to the southeast by El Salvador, and to the south by the Pacific Ocean. Two mountain chains enter Guatemala from west to east, dividing the country into three major regions: the highlands, where the mountains are located; the Pacific coast, south of the mountains; and the limestone plateau of the Petén region, north of the mountains. These areas vary in climate, elevation, and landscape, providing dramatic contrasts between hot and humid tropical lowlands and highland peaks and valleys.
The southern edge of the western highlands is marked by the Sierra Madre, which stretches from the Mexican border south and east, and continues at lower elevations toward El Salvador. The mountain chain is characterised by steep volcanic cones, including Tajumulco Volcano , the highest point in the country and Central America. All of Guatemala's 37 volcanoes (3 of them active: Pacaya, Santiaguito and Fuego), are in this mountain chain, and are abundant in the highlands.
The northern chain of mountains begins near the Mexican border with the Cuchumatanes range, then stretches east through the Chuacús and Chamá sierras, down to the Santa Cruz and Minas sierras, near the Caribbean Sea. The northern and southern mountains are separated by the Motagua valley, where the Motagua river and its tributaries drains from the highlands into the Caribbean being navigable in its lower end, where it forms the boundary with Honduras.
The rivers are short and shallow in the Pacific vertient, larger and deeper, such as the Polochic which drains in Lake Izabal, RÃÂo Dulce, Motagua and Sarstún that forms the boundary with Belize in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico vertient (Usumacinta, which forms the boundary between Chiapas, Mexico and Petén and its tributaries such as La Pasión and San Pedro.
Most of the major cities are located in the Highlands. Major cities are the capital Guatemala City, elevation 1,500 m (Central Highlands), Antigua Guatemala, elevation 1,530 m (Central Highlands), Quetzaltenango elevation 2,350 m (Western Highlands) and Puerto Barrios on the Caribbean coast. The largest lake Lago de Izabal (589.6 km<sup>2</sup>), is close to the Caribbean coast. Volcán Tajumulco, 4,220 m, the highest point in Central America, is located in the western department of San Marcos.
The last major earthquake was on February 4, 1976, killing more than 23,000 in the Central Highlands.
Climate is hot and humid in the Pacific and Petén Lowlands. It is more temperate in the highlands, to freezing cold at the high of the Cuchumatanes range, and hot/drier in the easternmost departments.
Guatemala's location on the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean makes it a target for hurricanes, including Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and Hurricane Stan in October 2005, which killed more than 1,500 people. The damage was not wind related, but caused by flooding and landslides.
Global Forest Watch publishes annual estimates of tree cover loss and 2000 tree cover extent derived from time-series analysis of Landsat satellite imagery in the Global Forest Change dataset. In this framework, tree cover refers to vegetation taller than 5 m (including natural forests and tree plantations), and tree cover loss is defined as the complete removal of tree cover canopy for a given year, regardless of cause.
For Guatemala, country statistics report cumulative tree cover loss of from 2001 to 2024 (about 24.6% of its 2000 tree cover area). For tree cover density greater than 30%, country statistics report a 2000 tree cover extent of . The charts and table below display this data. In simple terms, the annual loss number is the area where tree cover disappeared in that year, and the extent number shows what remains of the 2000 tree cover baseline after subtracting cumulative loss. Forest regrowth is not included in the dataset.
Under the UNFCCC REDD+ framework, Guatemala has submitted a national forest reference emission level (FREL). On the UNFCCC REDD+ Web Platform, the country's 2022 submission is listed as having an assessed reference level and a reported national strategy, while safeguards information and a national forest monitoring system are listed as "not reported".
The FREL was submitted in 2022 and technically assessed in 2024. It covers three REDD+ activities at national scale - reducing emissions from deforestation, reducing emissions from forest degradation, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks - and uses a 2006-2016 historical reference period. The technical assessment reported that the original submission proposed a FREL of 15,329,948.74 t CO2 eq per year, which was revised during the assessment process to an assessed FREL of 13,537,504.96 t CO2 eq per year.
The technical assessment states that the benchmark is the annual average of net CO2 emissions associated with deforestation and forest degradation, together with removals from enhancement of forest carbon stocks. It included above-ground biomass and below-ground biomass, while excluding deadwood, litter and soil organic carbon, and no adjustment for national circumstances was applied. The forest definition used for the FREL was land of at least 0.5 hectares, at least 5 metres in height, at least 30 percent canopy cover, minimum width of 60 metres, and trees with a minimum diameter of 10 cm.