**1. Introduction**

Currently, Guatemala has been included as a mega diversity country, because it represents a geographical area where convergence of a lot of different ecosystems involved a change in the physiography, climates, and biomes [1]. Especially, the climate variations in small territory have been playing an important role in the speciation process and specializations and adaptations in diverse populations of plants and animals.

Originally, Guatemala was cataloged as diversity, mainly for the data from terrestrial ecosystems, which has been studied with more emphasis [2]. The marine environment has been few studied; however, the geographical position of the country indicates that there is an important marine diversity in both coasts (Atlantic and Pacific) [2]. Recently, due the interest in the sea resources exploitation, the attention on these resources has increased. In contrast, the aquatic epicontinental resources have scarcity attention as study subject and natural resources, and their potential social and economic benefits are limited. The richness and importance of these small sources of life, important to the subsistence of human populations closers has not evaluated before 2000 year, due to this, it was not possible to give their real value when it has been planning strategies to management and conserve these resources.

In Guatemala, the natural epicontinental aquatic resources begin to acquire an important role in the priorities in the country, mainly due the latent threat of climate change and desertification [3]. The freshwater springs now are considered in the planning and land preservation strategies. As an example of this, Atitlán lake (located in the Sololá Department) worry internationally, due the massive cyanobacteria bloom, due the waste water from human closer to the basin [4]; this case induces that the scientific research activity on freshwater resources increase to get data from springs and streams as bigger basins as source to know the diversity and establish management plans and uses on this natural resources (fisheries, transport, and water sources to human use).

Due to this interest, the biological resource increases in importance, and one group that has been well represented in these environments are the crustaceans, mainly freshwater shrimps, crayfishes, and crabs, together several species of fishes and mollusk are dominant in these habitats [2].

In Guatemala, these resources have been exploited economically [5]. However, their importance in production is so low that there are not records and hard data. Several human communities used directly or indirectly the river resources from springs through the coastal connection. As happened with freshwater crabs from family Pseudothelphusidae that is possibly found in the majority of rivers or springs of country on east slope, even the Maya communities from highlands have a fishery and are used for self-consumption [6]. On another slope (Ocean Pacific), *Macrobrachium tenellum* and *Atya margaritacea* have important fisheries and commercialization among the coastal towns on the Pacific especially on south of country mainly in the estuaries of rivers María Linda and Los Esclavos [7]. The aim of this chapter is the potential in the freshwater aquatic natural resources in Guatemala, especially on those native species, and the analysis of native human populations that use these biological resources as protein sources.
