The Minister of Environment and Energy (Minae) of Costa Rica, Andrea Meza, said today that “the present decade is decisive for restoration, facing the vital goals of decarbonization, that will lead us to be net zero emissions in 2050 and to generate resilience”.
Meza made this declaration at the opening of the sixth virtual ministerial meeting of the “Bonn Challenge for Latin America and the Caribbean 2021”, which seeks to combat the three crises that affect the region, climate, socioeconomic and health.
The Minister said that to date, this initiative -presented in 2011- has been signed by more than 70 entities from 61 countries including governments, civil society organizations and private companies, with the restoration to date of more than 200 million hectares.
Until this Friday, the Central American nation will host this virtual ministerial meeting, in order to promote exchanges and analysis focused on the reality of the region, as well as share advances, strategies and innovative proposals to implement actions to restore ecosystems and landscapes.
According to the Minae, the meeting will analyze the short and medium-term priorities of the restoration of ecosystems and landscapes, with emphasis on their intersectoral nature and the transformation of productive and conservation practices that contribute to climate resilience towards a green recovery and post-COVID-19 blue economy.
Thus, he points out, they support the United Nations Decade of Restoration and strengthen the integration of the Mesoamerican and Caribbean countries in the regional cooperation process.
Minae recalls that the first meeting was convened through the Central American Integration System in 2015, and held in El Salvador. During the last meeting (2019) the Caribbean countries focused on restoration as a tool for ecosystem-based adaptation were incorporated, in the face of the critical vulnerability to climate change of the Caribbean islands and coasts.
