Strengthening cooperation with Latin America on ecosystem management
Hon’ble Minister of Environment and Energy of Costa Rica His Excellency Edgar Gutiérrez invited representation from UNEP-IEMP to participate in a high-level working meeting on the “Costa Rica Green Hub”, held in the province of Heredia, Costa Rica.
The Costa Rica Green Hub-an agile and pragmatic knowledge sharing platform on sustainable forest management and ecosystem services-is an initiative of the Government of Costa Rica that benefits from the technical expertise of FUNDECOR, country’s leading environmental NGO, and is also supported by the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE).
The meeting brought together international experts and key stakeholders to discuss the guiding framework, governance structure and financial instruments of the Green Hub initiative, which is expected to be officially launched in April 2016. Silvia Cazzetta, Senior Fellow and Focal Point of UNEP-IEMP’s collaboration in Latin America represented the Centre. The visit served as a valuable opportunity to strengthen UNEP-IEMP’s alliance with FUNDECOR, which was initiated in the year 2015.
As a follow up to this mission in Costa Rica, UNEP-IEMP supported FUNDECOR in the organization of another high-level meeting, “From Costa Rica to the World: the Green Hub Initiative”. The event was held at the premises of the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR) in Beijing, the event was attended by representatives of the Chinese Government, diplomats, scientists and technical experts.
During the sidelines of the visit to China, FUNDECOR representatives were also invited to participate in the development of a new proposal of the NSFC-UNEP Joint Research Programme. This is done in cooperation with the South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
