Great Forests of Mesoamerica Programme – Biodiversity Conservation

The Great Forests of Mesoamerica cover southeast Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. When the Trifinio region (between Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras) is added, they cover an area of approximately 266,000 km² (more than five times the surface area of Costa Rica).

While biodiversity hotspots in Mesoamerica represent less than 0.5% of the surface of the planet, they contain between 7% and 10% of all forms of known life, including 17% of all land species. It is one of the most biologically diverse regions in the world. These forests act as veritable green lungs and contain about half of the carbon stocks in the region. They thereby play an essential role in the fight against climate change. They also supply water, clean air, timber and non-timber products, as well as other vital natural resources. In addition, they ensure the food security and direct and indirect survival of about 10 million people. Indigenous and local communities occupy 48% of these forests, and their presence is critical to the preservation of these ecosystems.

However, Mesoamerica is highly exposed and extremely vulnerable to climate change. This phenomenon is linked to and exacerbated by:

• Economic, ethnic and gender inequalities
• Changes in land use: deforestation and forest degradation which affect biodiversity
• Strong economic dependence on natural resources as the basis for production

In addition, there are the challenges posed by the application of local environmental legislation to stop illegal deforestation and the expansion of the agricultural frontier, the presence of organised crime (connected to trafficking), and the migration crisis.

Since 2019, organisations such as Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the Central American Commission for Environment and Development (CCAD), the Mesoamerican Alliance of Peoples and Forests (AMPB), Re:wild, and the Ministries of Environment of Central America have joined forces to develop a long-term impact initiative. The objective is to strengthen the resilience of the five Great Forests of Mesoamerica, with the participation of indigenous communities, civil society organisations, academia, and governments.

During COP26, which was held in Glasgow in 2021, the European Union announced its support to the initiative with €4.15 million of financing from the DeSIRA (Development Smart Innovation through Research in Agriculture) programme. The initial positive results prompted the EU to make a further disbursement the following year, which was announced during COP27 (Sharm el-Sheikh, 2022). It amounts to €25.5 million and is supplemented by co-financing from other EU Member State agencies.

The Five Great Forests of Mesoamerica initiative is an ambitious programme that aims to build on the positive results achieved so far in the preservation, governance and protection of forests and their populations, in conjunction with the past and present efforts of regional institutions and stakeholders.

The overall objective of the programme is to enhance the protection and sustainable use of the Great Forests of Mesoamerica and other relevant forest areas (including the Trifinio Region). It is based on four lines of action:

1. Data and transparency for decision-making.
2. Forest governance.
3. Sustainable production and trade.
4. Environmental rights and forest protection.

Through a #TeamEurope approach, the implementation of the activities is entrusted to EU Member State agencies: AECID, GIZ, Expertise France and SIDA. Action is planned at the regional and national levels, as well as in specific areas (subnational), funded with cascading grants with partners at local level.

Expertise France is working to enhance biodiversity conservation in the Great Forests of Mesoamerica through a multi-stakeholder and multi-country approach.

The objective is to give stakeholders in the conservation of the Great Forests of Mesoamerica the means to implement enhanced biodiversity management and monitoring practices at the local and transboundary levels, through an inclusive approach.

To this end, Expertise France is deploying the following activities under this project:

• Smart and participatory biodiversity conservation initiatives are designed and implemented with local communities and indigenous peoples in the forest areas of Mesoamerica
• Regional inter-governmental technical entities benefit from support to operationalise the current regional strategy for biodiversity and, where appropriate, harmonise and strengthen the frameworks to regulate and protect regional wildlife, especially endangered species and transboundary habitats
• The stakeholders working on biodiversity in the Mesoamerica region exchange best practices in conservation management and monitoring to strengthen the dynamics of the networks and communities of practice