Forest Landscape Restoration in Central America and the Caribbean and implementation of the Green Development Fund for Central America (REDD Landscape)

Central America is a leading region in the restoration of ecosystems as part of the Bonn Challenge and the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. However, deforestation rates remain high due to the expansion of agricultural land. The European Union (EU) Deforestation-free Regulation (EUDR) creates market incentives to eliminate deforestation in commodity production. The project enables private and public actors in selected areas of the five major forests of Mesoamerica to jointly implement deforestation-free land use practices. It promotes the development of a digital, public infrastructure and the use of traceability systems in important supply chains and helps to establish deforestation-free territories. International exchange and policy reforms are promoted through the Central American Integration System (SICA), global initiatives for the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration and EUDR.

Project data

Countries: Belize, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama
IKI funding: 13,120,000.00 €
Duration: 08/2017 till 11/2027
Status: open
Implementing organisation: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
Political Partner: Central American Integration System (SICA)
Implementing Partner: Regional International Organization for Plant Protection and Animal Health

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)

International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)

Center for Corporate Social Responsibility Action (CENTRARSE)

Central American Agricultural Council

Central American Commission for Environment and Development

Central American Integration System (SICA) - Tri-National Commission of the Trinifio Plan

Committee on Sustainability Assessment (COSA)

Foundation for the Conservation of Natural Resources

FUNBAM Fundación Banco Ambiental

Fundación Solidaridad Latinoamericana ‘Solidaridad’

Koordinierende Vereinigung Indigener- und der Landbevölkerung Agroforstwirtschaftlicher Gemeinden Zentralamerikas (Asociación Coordinadora Indígena y Campesina de Agroforestería Comunitaria Centroamericana – ACICAFOC)

Linux Foundation

National Association for Nature Conservation (ANCON)

PROMECAFE - Guatemala

Taking Root Inc. Empresa Social
Online: https://www.giz.de/en/worldwide/79241.html

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State of implementation/results

The five key territories are Selva Maya in Guatemala/ Belize/ Mexico, Trifinio in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, La Mosquitia in Honduras, La Amistad in Costa Rica/Panama y el Darièn in Panama.
Spaces for Dialogue:
- The Early Action and Learning Community on the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) platform offers regular virtual meetings with over 500 participants to date, including representatives from coffee institutes from Central America, the private sector, and EU entities' representatives.
EUDR Compliance and Capacity Strengthening:
- The “EUDR in Action” workshop series, implemented with the Honduran-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, trained 36 companies on practical due diligence, traceability and compliance requirements.
Maps, Data and Traceability:
- The stewardship of the INATrace open-source traceability tool was transferred to Linux Foundation Europe, reinforcing open governance and long-term sustainability.
- A hands-on “training of trainers” course on traceability and the INATrace tool (24–27 November 2025, Costa Rica) trained 20 technicians from public institutions and private actors from Costa Rica and Panama to support adoption across supply chains.
- In response to the EUDR a Coffee Plantation Map for 2020 has been developed for Central America based on an innovative process to improve the accuracy of the mapping of coffee plantations in the region, using images from the European space program Copernicus. This map considers the complexity of agroforestry systems in the Central American region, where a coffee plantation grown under the shade of trees can look, from satellite imagery, very similar to a natural forest. Without high-quality, locally informed maps, a simple change in management or renovation of such an agroforestry system can be misinterpreted by global land-cover datasets as “deforestation,” creating false positives. These misclassifications could — if not corrected with appropriate mapping and verification — unfairly harm the livelihoods of local farmers.
- In February 2026, partners shipped the first export container of Designation of Origin (D.O.) “Café Marcala” to France, combining origin, quality and compliance evidence under the European Union Deforestation Regulation through an interoperable set-up (in collaboration with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, COMSA and Marcala D.O.).
Intersectoral Dialogue on Deforestation-Free Supply Chains:
- The SICA Council of Ministers of Agriculture, Environment, and Trade launched the “SICA Intersectoral Plan towards EUDR” which establishes the roadmap to address the EUDR and approved the roadmap for the elaboration of a Sustainable Livestock Strategy, which aims to transform livestock production into a more environmentally friendly and economically viable sector.
Territorial pilots:
- A participatory, multi-stakeholder analisis identified organizational gaps and opportunities in Costa Rica’s cocoa sector for EUDR readiness.