Mesoamerica’s primary forests house half of the region’s carbon sinks and provide essential ecosystem services to millions of people. However, between 2000 and 2020, around 1.4 million hectares were lost, representing a total area reduction of 23%. This alarming rate of decline highlights the serious threats facing forest ecosystems, such as unsustainable agricultural expansion, illegal logging, urban and infrastructure development, wildfires and climate change—key drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in the region.

The Program aims to increase management effectiveness in over 5 million hectares of protected areas, improve landscape management in 1.3 million hectares through the establishment and recognition of Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs) and restore 61,000 hectares of highly prioritised lands for primary forest connectivity, directly benefiting 176,500 people, 79,500 of whom are women, while mitigating an estimated 58 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e).

The Program comprises six national projects and one regional knowledge management project. The six national projects (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama), implemented by IUCN and FAO, will focus on forests in Trifinio, the Selva Maya, Honduras’ Moskitia and Darién. The regional project, implemented by IUCN, will expand the efforts of the national projects to a regional scale, maximising their impact through the definition of regional priorities, as well as capacity development and synergies to improve the conservation of key forest ecosystems.

Comunicado de prensa de la UICN del 24 Jun, 2025: https://iucn.org/press-release/202506/protecting-irreplaceable-mexico-and-central-america-join-forces-conserve