Based on the declaration to foster Climate Smart Agriculture, which was signed by the Ministers of Agriculture, the Central American Agricultural Council (CAC) has been leading the process of designing a Regional Strategy on Climate Adapted Sustainable Agriculture, while promoting initiatives focused on reducing climate risks, increasing resilience and achieving mitigation goals.

CAC, supported by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), is leading the formulation of the Climate-Smart Agriculture Strategy for Central America and Dominican Republic with the aim of providing guidelines to governments and key stakeholders to implement concrete actions that can support farmers to diminish negative impacts of changes in climate through adaptation and risk management while promoting sustainable food production, increasing productivity, food security and nutrition and reducing GHG emissions. The formulation process of the CSA Strategy has been inclusive involving diversity of stakeholders from public and private sector, as well as research institutions. Countries involved in this process are: Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and Dominican Republic, all part of CAC. The Inter-agency group of technical partners that support CAC has been actively involved in the process; this group includes ECLAC, CATIE, IICA, CCAFS-CIAT and FAO, among others. 

In the following months, the CSA Strategy is expected to be approved by CAC country members, in order to start its implementation during the second semester of 2017. The CSA Strategy implementation is a critical stage of the process and will require strategic support from technical and financial institutions. The alignment of the Strategy to Sustainable Development Goals contributes to the achievement of targets and to the articulation and synergy of current and future initiatives in the region. The CSA Strategy provides a portfolio of key measures to implement at a regional level but that can support, at the same time, national level initiatives. The latter allows policy and decision makers to reduce duplication of efforts and increase efficiency in achieving targets, goals and impact.

The CSA Regional Strategy needs to be supported by initiatives and projects aligned to it and to national and subnational efforts led by both public and private sector with technical and financial support from international cooperation. CAC members will continue promoting a sustainable future for the agricultural sector in the region considering climate challenges and opportunities, given its importance for food security and nutrition, as well as economic and inclusive growth.

 -Ministry of of Agriculture and Livestock of Costa Rica

For more information, please contact: Mr. Roberto Azofeifa, Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, Costa Rica email: [email protected]