Sustainable management of forests

Central America has unparalleled natural wealth that translates into an opportunity to generate inclusive wealth from biodiversity. Thus, the public and the private sector are increasingly investing in promoting the sustainable management of forests. The region must overcome specific bottlenecks preventing sustainable use of its resources, and the main bottleneck related to sustainable forest management still needs to be improved.  

In 2022, the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (MFEA) adopted a new regional strategy for Central America that aims to support regional development objectives, with a particular focus on the socioeconomic integration of women and youth, climate resilience and environmental sustainability, and social cohesion and human rights.

In this context, the MFEA entrusted LuxDev with the implementation of a project, "Support for sustainable  management of forests", aimed at strengthening forest value chains and the recovery of degraded forests in Central America. In addition to the above strategy, the project also takes account of the MFEA's financial inclusion strategy and its environment and climate change strategy.

This project includes three main axes:  

• axis 1 – technical assistance to the Forestry and climate change fund (FCCF);
• axis 2 – support to the timber and non-timber value chains;
• axis 3 – strengthening of social inclusion.  

The global objective of the project is to reduce deforestation rates in degraded and secondary forests by strengthening sustainable value chains that contribute to comprehensive rural development, good living in local communities and ecosystem resilience.  

The objective of axis 1 is to facilitate FCCF in scaling up its outreach and profitability in alignment with its Theory of Change with the primary objective of reducing deforestation rates in degraded and secondary forests.

Axes 2 and 3 expand this support to communities and forestry organisations, to ensure inclusive and sustainable economic development in Costa Rica, focusing on the development of timber and timber value chains and social inclusion of women and young people.