Presented by Salvador Ernesto Nieto Cárcamo, Executive Secretary, Central American Commission for Environment and Development During GLF Luxembourg

1. Enabling environment for investments in
landscape restoration in Central America
Salvador Nieto, Executive Secretary
Central American Commission on Environment and Development
(CCAD)
Luxembourg, November 30th 2019

2. Background
The Central American Commission on Environment and
Development (CCAD) was constituted in 1989 to
establish a regional cooperation regime for the optimal
and rational use of natural resources, the control of
pollution and the reestablishment of ecological balance,
in order to guarantee a better quality of life for the
population of Central America.
Article I, CCAD’s Constitutive Agreement

3. Central
America:
One of the regions
of the world most
exposed to climate
phenomenon, its
societies and
ecosystems are
particularly
vulnerable to the
adverse effects of
climate change.
Restoration:
A political priority
in the region as a
nature-based
solution to
climate change
(Ecosystem
based
adaptation).

4. CCAD
Regional
Environmental
Framework
Strategy
(ERAM)
Regional
Climate Change
Strategy
(ERCC)
Bonn Challenge
Green Development
Fund for SICA
Region
AFOLU Initiative
Decade on
Ecosystem
Restoration
REGIONAL INITIATIVES

5. AFOLU INITIATIVE:
 AFOLU sector responsible for more than 50% of the regions’
total emissions.
 Central America recognized as a megadiversity center: 2% of
earth’s surface, 12% of world’s biodiversity.
 Build greater resilience, boost climate change adaptation plans
and strategies and contribute to reduce significative emissions
in AFOLU sector.
 Goal: By 2030 the SICA region will establish and manage 10
million hectares of “productive, sustainable and resilient
landscapes”, reducing no less than 40% of AFOLU sector
emissions, compared to 2010.

6.  AFOLU Initiative Components:
o Conservation of forests and forest ecosystems.
o Transformation of agricultural production systems, transiting
to a low carbon and resilient agriculture and livestock.
o Integration and promotion of sustainable practices in sugar
cane, pineapple, palm oil, cacao, coffee, and involvement of
private sector.
o Conservation of the region’s main wooded areas and their
ecological connectivity.
o Develop and establish an monitoring, report and verification
(MRV) system, which includes agriculture mitigation and
adaptation.

7. Bonn Challenge:
 Launched in Latin America in 2015 in El Salvador.
 5 ministerial meetings carried out to 2019 (El Salvador, Panamá,
Honduras, Guatemala and Cuba).
 The region is committed to bring more than 8 million hectares of
deforested and degraded land into restoration.
Decade on Restoration:
 The UN General Assembly declared the Decade on Ecosystem
Restoration (2021-2030) on march 1st 2019.
 Aims to massively scale up the restoration of degraded and
destroyed ecosystems as a proven measure to fight climate
change and enhance food security, water supply and biodiversity.
 The Decade was a proposal from El Salvador with full support of
the SICA region countries.

8. Green Development Fund for SICA Region:
 Establish regional coordinated operative and financial
mechanisms for ecosystem and landscapes restoration in order
to increase resilience to climate change in the SICA countries.
 Develop common criteria at the regional level for the design of
restoration projects.
 Strengthen specific capacities in the management of
environmental funding.
 Consolidate regional coordination structures and processes for
the prioritization and implementation of restoration investments.
 Create a platform which links the region to the new global climate
and environmental funding architecture (regional climate and
environmental investment structure).

9. SICA REGION:
 Strong integration of policies and initiatives on the national
and regional level.
 Long-term commitment to build the enabling environment
for landscape restoration.
 Scalability of regional financing programs and cross-
border and regional impacts.
 Coordinated approach: peer learning, knowledge
exchange.

10. Thank you
snieto@sica.int
+503 2248-8843
+503 7737-8654
Skype: nietosal