Regional Program on Climate Change -PRCC-CATIE-USAID-CARE

Project Name

Execution Period

01 October 2013 – 30 September 2017

Target Population

Climate Change Directorates, Social Participation Directorates and National Safeguards Committees of the Ministries of Environment and Natural Resources of Central America and the Dominican Republic.

Donor

USAID

Project Description

The Regional Climate Change Program works to reduce the vulnerability of human populations to climate change in Central America and the Dominican Republic. CARE contributes to this program to implement specific actions within the sustainable landscapes component through:

Supporting the implementation of the National REDD+ Strategies, especially to design the National Safeguards Approach and its Safeguards Information System harmonizing them with measurement, reporting and verification protocols.
CARE also contributes to a cross-cutting program activity that seeks to implement a public-private partnership under REDD+ schemes in Guatemala.

CARE's Challenges within the PRRC

Present a regional guide with guidelines for applying safeguards at the national level.
Countries to advance in the preparation of their national REDD+ strategies.
Exchange among countries to see the progress of their strategies and their national approaches to safeguards as well as their Safeguards Information Systems -SIS- and Monitoring, Reporting and Verification -MRV-.

MAIN PROJECT ACTIVITIES

REGIONAL: Production of a regional guide of guidelines for designing and implementing a National Safeguards Approach based on the interpretation of the UNFCCC Cancun Safeguards. The usefulness of this guide for the countries lies in the importance of reporting the application of safeguards in REDD+ actions that each country must carry out before the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
NATIONAL: Support countries in the region to design their National Safeguards Approach and their Safeguards Information System associated with measurement, review and verification processes, as well as create and consolidate forest governance platforms related to REDD+, especially the National Safeguards Committees, coordinating with other PRCC partners and National Committees or Commissions related to consultation, free prior and informed consent, benefit sharing mechanisms and reference level scenarios. These national safeguard approaches are useful for countries as they will be one of the verifying means or keys to access funding to prepare and implement their National REDD+ Strategy.
LOCAL: Promote with FUNDAECO a public-private alliance between several actors in Guatemala to promote avoided deforestation and degradation actions with the participation of local communities in the Cerro San Gil Springs Reserve in Izabal Guatemala. This project will allow the local communities involved to carry out early actions that will generate payments in the near future through carbon credits.

Partners and Allies

CATIE, UICN, DAI, TERRA GLOBAL, BID-FCPF, ONU-REDD, FUNDAECO.