Objective: 

To increase adaptability to the effects of climate change in vulnerable areas of Central America and to contribute to sustainable and resilient development in the SICA countries by supporting the implementation of national climate change adaptation and mitigation plans within the framework of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) of the Paris Agreement.

Green Development Fund for the Central American Integration System (SICA) region is a regional program funded by the European Union and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) of the Federal Republic of Germany, in the framework of BMU's International Climate Initiative (IKI); and is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the Central American Commission for Environment and Development (CCAD) in the framework of the "REDD+ Landscape" Program.

the Green Development Fund for the SICA region aims to increase adaptability to the effects of climate change in vulnerable areas of Central America and to contribute to sustainable and resilient development in the SICA countries by supporting the implementation of national climate change adaptation and mitigation plans in the framework of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) of the Paris Agreement.

To achieve its objective, the Green Development Fund for the SICA region adopts the ecosystem and landscape restoration approach, understanding it as a long-term process that results in the recovery of ecological integrity, the maintenance and provision of ecosystem services, and the improvement of local livelihoods (sustainable production) of communities in deforested or degraded ecosystems.    (See Figure 1)

It is the role of governments (particularly Ministries of Environment) to create the legal basis and provide the political as well as technical guidance for the operation of a "national landscape restoration system" through policy tools, coordination platforms, co-investment and co-implementation processes. With the programme's technical assistance, countries consolidate their national restoration systems through:

Regional integration and coordination is a comparative advantage of the Central American Integration System (SICA) and the Central American Commission on Environment and Development (CCAD) regarding the climate-environmental financing architecture at the global level that requires regional financing structures of sufficient volume, scope and capacity to link territories to financing opportunities.

National governmental and non-governmental financial institutions that manage and operate financial mechanisms for ecosystem and landscape restoration are key actors within "national restoration systems"; the program contributes to the coordination and cooperation between climate-environmental financing entities and national and regional institutions with the vision of creating a SICA integrated regional financing mechanism for landscape restoration.

Therefore, the Green Development Fund promotes a regional coordination process for the formulation and management of investment projects in landscape restoration prioritized in the region within the CCAD framework

Finally, we promote technical and political exchange, through a regional platform of knowledge management; and, we provide countries with a space to share experiences and lessons learned to socialize and position the success of their activities at the regional and international level.