Latin America, Caribbean and Canada Program
The Bolivian Amazon covers approximately 985 square miles (59.6 million hectares), of which, roughly two-thirds is forested. About half of Bolivia's Amazon forest cover consists of primary forest. However, throughout Bolivia, wildland fires, especially where they interface with the urban environment, have significant social, economic, and ecological implications. In Bolivia, increased human-pressures and the changing climate have increased the occurrence of wildland fires.
The local agencies recognize that, in the case of Bolivia, human factors are among the main causes of forest fires as more than 66% are caused by activities related to agricultural production and the expansion of the agricultural frontier. For Bolivia, the damage to its forest cover implies not only a direct impact to its biodiversity, but also the reduction of the water sources that supply urban centers, which is why this issue must be a matter of priority for the local government and its allies.
In collaboration with the U.S. Department of State in Bolivia, the USDA Forest Service provides technical support to strengthen Bolivian governmental and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) on wildland fire response and management. The USDA Forest Service has conducted several workshops on Incident Command System (ICS) and fire management in the wildland-urban interface in Tarija and Santa Cruz, Bolivia. The workshops included the main institutions, agencies, and NGOs involved in fire management. Objectives included presenting an introduction to the Incident Command System (ICS), and how to apply ICS in the field to facilitate interagency cooperation, coordination, and safe and effective response. Workshops also included technical exchange of information regarding fire prevention and response in areas of wildland urban interface.
For over 40 years the USDA Forest Service (USFS) has worked in partnership with the Brazilian Government and civil society. By relying on the strengths and skills of many US and Brazilian experts, the collaboration focuses on managing public lands for multiple uses and address deforestation, forest degradation and conservation.
Today, the 20-year partnership between U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), U.S. State Department and the government of Brazil focuses on addressing important issues for the conservation of Brazil’s natural resources. Both countries have benefited from lessons learned, guidance and shared experiences in natural resource management. The focus continues to build capacity for protected area management, strengthen key institutions to protect tropical forests and biodiversity, and to connect society to the national park and forest system.
Through the Partnership for the Conservation of Amazon Biodiversity, USFS coordinates with USAID, Brazilian agencies, such as the Chico Mendes Institute for the Conservation of Biodiversity (ICMBio), to better connect society to public lands through improved protected area management and sustainable tourism development. ICMBio manages 150 million hectares within 334 Conservation Units, including 17% of Brazil’s national territory. The USFS and ICMBio collaborate in developing two demonstration sites in the Anavilhanas National Park and Tapajos National Forest to field test methodologies and technologies for managing public use, as well as inform options for developing policy.
In addition to the public use component of our collaboration, there is also the sustainable livelihoods project within the Partnership for the Conservation of Amazon Biodiversity focuses forest dependent communities and product value chain development. The goal is to improve livelihood alternatives linked to biodiversity conservation for residents in and around protected areas. Additionally, this partnership allows the USFS to engage with protected areas on fire management to address fire prevention, suppression and prescribed burning as essential to the goals of governance and sustainable livelihoods.
In summary our current activities include:
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Reducing the threat of fire through management, prevention and coordination
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Improving institutional capacity to manage protected areas and establishing sustainable tourism and protected area management planning
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Supporting sustainable livelihoods through improving forest product value chains
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Migratory bird habitat conservation through community based tourism and responsible production of beef.
In the past our program topics included:
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Community natural resource management
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Migratory Bird Habitat Conservation
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Technical and research support to Brazil’s national forest policy, forest inventory and products
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Forest monitoring
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Integrated fire management, fire monitoring, hotspot detection and fire science
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Climate change mitigation: transferring technology to assess forest biomass using remote sensing tools, among them airborne lidar.
For more information about our programs:
The USDA Forest Service (USFS) has a long history of collaboration on natural resource management issues in Chile. For the past decade, USFS has worked in partnership with the U.S. Department of State (DOS) and the Government of Chile (GoC) to address many crucial issues pertaining to the country’s vast natural resources by tapping into the technical knowledge and expertise of the USFS. By sharing common experiences and challenges managing protected areas and forests, the U.S. and GoC’s land management agencies have developed successful and mutually beneficial partnerships. USFS has collaborated with the National System of Protected Wild Areas (SNASPE) division of Chile’s National Forestry Corporation (CONAF) to work on the aforementioned issues and share U.S. experiences in bringing together representatives from different stakeholder groups and implement best practices and different decision-making strategies for sustainable tourism.
The USFS has worked to standardize public use planning and public outreach across the entire system of protected areas in Chile. This work includes concession management, land planning, monitoring and evaluation, and capacity building, among other topics, with a future area for collaboration also including fire management in protected areas. The USFS has also provided technical assistance related to fire management.
Colombia is a nation characterized by incredible biodiversity, a wide spectrum of ecosystems, and beautiful landscapes. Colombia holds ten-percent of the world’s biodiversity while encompassing less than one-percent of the world’s landmass, making it one of only seventeen biologically mega-diverse countries in the world. Because fifty-percent of Colombia’s 282 million acres are covered by forests, land use and forests management are important issues to Colombia. However, logging, mining, small and large-scale agricultural activity, energy development, infrastructure construction and the illicit drug trade have all contributed to Colombian deforestation.
In collaboration with the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the USDA Forest Service provides technical support to strengthen natural resource management and biodiversity conservation, knowledge sharing, and policy formulation. The USDA Forest Service collaborates with local partners, such as the Colombian National Police, Colombian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and the private sector to develop or enhance natural resource law enforcement in protected areas, and urban forestry and community engagement. Work combines targeted training and technical assistance activities by the USDA Forest Service with complementary activities implemented by government and non-governmental organization partners. Our goal is to increase natural resource management and protection capacities of partner organizations.
The USDA Forest Service program in the Dominican Republic provides technical assistance to improve management of and decrease vulnerability to the effects of climate change. This is accomplished through improving land use practices to promote adaptation in key municipalities, conducting long-term climate research to inform adaptation strategies, and providing technical assistance, technology transfer, capacity development, and trainings. Expertise in watershed management, climate information analysis, vulnerability assessments, and urban forestry is utilized to provide technical assistance to local information providers, municipal planners and officials, and communities to decrease their vulnerability to climate change. In the current global environment, it is important to take a broad view of the emerging issues facing watersheds in the DR.
Developing an informed public, collecting reliable data that is easily accessible, building capacity in-country for ongoing collection and analysis of watershed data, and developing short, medium and long term priorities and activities will help create a framework for the continued building of resilience to climate change. Watershed management in the DR must consider components of land use change and livelihoods, incorporating both environmental and social factors into long-term management and solutions.
Home to mountains, jungles, deserts, valleys, rainforests, and snow-capped peaks, Ecuador is one of most biodiverse countries in the world. The country is geographically divided into four regions-the Amazon, the Highlands, the Coast, and the Galapagos Islands. The result is a variety of habitats and an extraordinary concentration of species endemic to this region. While Ecuador is known worldwide for its biodiversity, it also has one of the planet’s highest rates of deforestation. Logging, mining and other activities have caused the Andes-Amazon and Andes-Choco regions of Ecuador to be the among the most threatened pristine forest ecosystems on the planet. Nearly all native vegetation of the Inter-Andean Basin has been eliminated and replaced by crops, pasture, towns and exotic tree plantations. In northwest Ecuador, in the province of Esmeraldas, the last unprotected old-growth forests are now being logged by the timber industry and cleared for large plantations of African palm.
The USDA Forest Service works with Ecuadoran government institutions and non-governmental organizations to safeguard the countries natural resources. The USDA Forest Service team is currently working with the water fund, Fondo para la Protección del Agua (FONAG), on watershed management, conservation, and restoration in the Ecuadoran paramo, which safeguards Quito’s water supply for 1.6 million people.
Guatemala has one of the most diverse and extensive forest systems in Central America. These tropical forests face several trans-national and national threats which adversely impact their conservation. Land use change has also increased Guatemala’s vulnerability to climate change, as well as, problems of land and soil degradation. In order to increase the rate of forest restoration and manage land use change, forest management and sustainable use practices are critical. For more than a decade, the USDA Forest Service has worked on a variety of ecological issues in Guatemala. The USDA Forest Service and Guatemalan partner organizations work together on sustainable forest management, forest health, forest landscape restoration, and community forestry.
Additionally, the USDA Forest Service is working long-term to build capacity on fire response and disaster management across both governmental and non-governmental institutions. A frequent collaborator of USDA Forest Service activities in Guatemala is U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). USAID has also provided funding for the USDA Forest Service to complete some of its work in Guatemala.
The USDA Forest Service (USFS) program in Haiti collaborates with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on activities related to Natural Resource Management and with USAID/Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA) on activities related to Disaster Management. For the natural resource management stream of funding, USFS works to accomplish the following objectives: technical assistance related to Reg 216 compliance and natural resources management; assessments and studies to support improved natural resources management; training on Regulation 216 for USAID/Haiti and implementing partner staff; and environmental audits for key Mission programs. Short- and long-term technical assistance has been critical to helping the Mission review and strengthen numerous environmental documents and to assist the Mission to prepare key sections of procurement packages. Well-prepared environmental compliance procedures and documentation are integral for planning, decision-making, procurement, and implementation.
The environmental review process is an up-front planning tool that provides a detailed environmental, biological, economic, and social analysis of a project’s proposed actions and alternatives to make an informed decision on the selection of sustainable actions to implement. The environmental review process is increasingly important and helpful as the effects of a changing climate and weather extremes cause greater impacts on infrastructure, livelihoods (e.g. agriculture and fisheries), biodiversity, health, and the environment. The disaster management program in Haiti works on capacity building for disaster response through implementation of the incident command system. The purpose of the Haiti Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Capacity Building Program is the introduction to and creation of a robust training program covering EOC operations and management and the incident command system, the curriculum of which has been contextualized to the Haitian context.
For over 20 years the US Forest Service (USFS) has been supporting the forestry sector in Honduras with the intent of creating a more holistic system for multi-use management of forested lands. The US Forest Service has been active in providing technical assistance and support for improved forest inventory methods, community forestry, protected area management and interpretation, watershed management, fire management, low impact road construction, pine bark beetle management, wood identification, forestry regulations, and best practices in natural resources management.
Also, with funding from the US Agency for International Development and in collaboration with the Honduran government and NGOs, the US Forest Service has been working in Honduras since 2016 to establish a Youth Conservation Corps Program to provide natural resources conservation technical training to youth living in rural Western Honduras. Drawing from the long history and experience of successful conservation corps models in the United States, this program similarly prepares youth for careers and leadership roles in natural resource conservation while assisting in the conservation of natural resources in Honduran National Parks, improving tourism opportunities in the country, and educating communities about the benefits of natural resource conservation and public lands. To date over 100 youth from El Salvador and Honduras have graduated from the Honduras Youth Conservation Corps Program.
As a small island developing country, Jamaica is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and a high level of interdependence exists between the environmental, economic and social systems in the country. Over the past twenty years, the USDA Forest Service, with funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, has developed strong working relationships with the Government of Jamaica and the Jamaica Forestry Department to highlight the value and role of Jamaica’s forests in climate change mitigation.
Additionally, the USDA Forest Service has provided significant technical support to the Jamaica Fire Brigade, including training for the first qualified wildland fire investigators in Jamaica. Sustaining healthy watersheds is also a concern for Jamaica as it looks for opportunities to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Projects also focus on managing and mitigating the risk of fire and other disasters and their impacts on biodiversity and community enterprises, identifying and addressing constraints to sustainable tourism, and managing protected areas effectively.
For more than twenty-five years and with the support of the US Agency for International Development, the US Forest Service and Mexican partners have collaborated to improve natural resources management and conserve biodiversity by supporting activities in community forestry, conserving migratory species, forest monitoring, protected area management and wildland fire management.
As neighbors, the United States and Mexico share many natural resources challenges, such as the threat of invasive species and uncontrolled wildland fires. To address these challenges, the US Forest Service collaborates with Mexican counterparts to better manage natural resources across North America. Through the North American Forest Commission, the US, Mexico and Canada have collaborated for more than 50 years on topics related to forest management.
Much of Mexico’s forests have been heavily deforested and degraded, resulting in loss of potential for climate change mitigation, timber production, watershed protection, biodiversity and the many needs of local communities. One of the keys for improving forest management and conservation, and sustaining forest production, is to help decision makers, natural resources managers, stewards of land, community members and academics, make science-based decisions with the best available information, existing best management practices, tested tools and methodologies, and forest monitoring systems. As part of the US Agency for International Development (USAID)/Mexico Sustainable Landscapes Program, the USDA Forest Service strengthens institutional and technical capacity of Mexican organizations to manage and restore forests, improve forest governance and legality, and reduce greenhouse gases associated with deforestation and forest degradation. The overall goals of this program are to strengthen Mexican natural resources management institutions and organizations so they have the knowledge, technical capacity and tools to manage and restore forests, prevent deforestation and forest degradation, reduce GHG emissions and support livelihoods dependent on forests.
The US Forest Service provides diverse capacity building activities, including direct technical assistance, workshops, courses, webinars, seminars, study tours to share US examples, sabbaticals and technical meetings. US Forest Service employees and Mexican counterparts share their experience on a regular basis, and this close partnership allows both parties to better address dynamic natural resource management challenges. These professional relationships often develop into friendships that go beyond a particular activity, and strengthen the bonds between our neighboring nations.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, rosewood (scientific name: Dalbergia) is the most trafficked wild species in the world, and is valued at more than elephant ivory, rhino horns, pangolins, lions, and tigers combined. Surging domestic demand in China for rosewood, also known as redwood, cocobolo, or rosul has been driving illegal logging of these rare and very valuable tree species across Central America. With increasing prices for rosewood, regional illegal timber networks have been financing aggressive local logging organizations from Mexico to Panama, mainly in dry tropical forests where it grows. The deforestation of this species has had a devastating impact on indigenous forest communities and the natural resources that sustain their livelihoods. With the new trade agreement between Panama and China that is being put in place, there is an expectation that timber exports from Panama will continue to increase.
The USDA Forest Service program in Panama provides technical assistance focused on increasing reforestation, improving livelihoods, especially of people of the Wounaan indigenous community, and combatting illegal logging. This is accomplished through providing technical assistance in areas such as native nurseries and best practices for outplanting, providing training to government officials prosecuting illegal loggers, providing training in wildfire management, and conducting analysis and targeted assistance to improve value chains for non-timber forest products important to the Wounaan community.
Peru boasts the second largest area of the Amazon rainforest as well the varied landscapes and ecosystems of the desert coast and Andes Mountains. At 173 million acres (70 million hectares), the Peruvian Amazon provides habitat for myriad species, as well as a livelihood for thousands of native communities and a few large cities. Peru is classified as one of the world’s 17 “megadiverse” countries, hosting more than 23,000 species of plants and animals, 6,000 of which are endemic. Although the Government of Peru has made considerable efforts to protect its natural heritage, illegal logging, lack of information, and other issues continue to hinder sustainable natural resource management throughout Peru’s Amazonian and mountain ecosystems.
The USDA Forest Service works in Peru with the support of the U.S. Agency for International Development to strengthen institutions to promote a forest sector that is legal, sustainable, modern and inclusive. Specifically, the program focuses on providing technical assistance in five key areas: implementing the forest and wildlife regulations; transparency, availability, and use of forestry information; building capacities for government personnel and regents; improving the public administration of forest authorities; and strengthening technical skills for natural resources and environmental management. The USDA Forest Service also supports the Government of Peru to comply with the obligations detailed in the Environment Chapter and Annex on Forest Sector Governance of the US-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement.
Regional And Cross Cutting Work
The USFS International Programs Office (USFS-IP) works with the US Department of State to implement the Environmental Cooperation Program of the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) that includes Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the US. This program aims to strengthen environmental protection, improve environmental performance of the private sector, and promote public participation for environmental decision-making. Along with its CAFTA-DR partners, USFS-IP promotes continued cooperation to reduce the harvest, processing, and trade of illegal timber of rosewood and other threatened timber species, and to ensure implementation of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
Curbing illegal logging is an economic, national security, environmental and human rights issue. As one of the world’s largest international traders in forest products, the United States depends on the long-term viability and legitimacy of the forest products market. Illegal logging hurts both the U.S. consumer and our timber industry. Furthermore, illegal logging undermines international governance and rule of law, and can devastate the environment by stimulating rapid deforestation and forest degradation. The USDA Forest Service International Programs office supports both policy and technical efforts to curb illegal logging. Building on our global partnership and the skillsets of our diverse workforce, USFS offers expertise aimed to improve law enforcement, border patrol, and forest monitoring for countries struggling with illegal logging.
In Latin America, specifically, we work across Mexico, Central, and South America to reduce illegal logging, strengthen forest governance, and improve local livelihoods through sustainable land management. Under the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) with State Department support, we work to reduce the illegal harvesting of rosewood species. Activities in this program include wood identification workshops, seed bank technical assistance trainings, and the publication of informational brochures and reports. In South America, we have introduced innovative new technologies, such as DNA testing, timber tracking, and automated wood identification devices.
International Programs also builds capacity for forest monitoring throughout Latin America so that countries can more accurately monitor their forests and therefore detect illegal logging and determine the locations of illicit logging activities. Lastly, throughout the Americas, we have coordinated with the State Department and the Department of Justice to provide regional environmental law enforcement and prosecutorial trainings that focus on combatting illegal logging and its international trade.
As a leader in fire management in the US for over 100 years, the USFS responds to over 70,000 fires annually and employs 10,000 professional wildland firefighters. In the US, our approach has evolved from reactive suppression to integrated policy that accounts for the environmental, social and political context for wildland fire.
Catastrophic wildfires have become more frequent and impactful in Central and South America as a result of environmental stressors, prolonged dry seasons, and other weather phenomenon impacting the region. Across the region, current approaches to prevention, preparedness, and response are challenged to deal with current and emerging wildland fire threats. The USFS has worked in partnership with countries throughout the region to provide ongoing capacity building and institutional strengthening on all aspects of wildland fire management and prevention. These efforts have focused on strengthening fire management through improving strategic planning, coordination and training, and promoting interagency and international collaboration, applying best practices and efficient knowledge-sharing across the region.
The USFS is committed to working with regional partners to develop a stronger network for wildland fire management.
With support of the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Department of State and in partnership with United States federal agencies, the SilvaCarbon program invests in science to promote a better understanding not only of the changes in land cover, but also of the effectiveness of various efforts to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from land use change. This can aid in promoting transparency in national and international mitigation actions in the forest and land use sector. It also strengthens multilateral efforts to combat climate change and informs countries on optimal ways to design and improve carbon inventory and monitoring efforts.
In the Andean Amazon, since the beginning of SilvaCarbon activities in 2011, decision-makers and technicians from Colombia, Ecuador and Peru have participated in regional workshops and capacity building exercises to address their shared interest in development of forest inventories, mapping technologies and greenhouse gas reporting methods. This regional approach in the Andean Amazon has helped foment relationships and knowledge sharing between the national agencies responsible for designing and implementing forest monitoring systems. Based on initial assessments, the SilvaCarbon in the Andean Amazon program focuses on building capacity for design and implementation of National Forest Inventories to provide accurate estimates of carbon stock and other forest resource data, building capacity in the use of remotely sensed data, development of consistent products over time to establish a greenhouse gas inventory in each country, and strengthening the community of forest and terrestrial carbon technical experts in the region.
Central American counties are at various stages in their forest inventory planning and implementation process. Some countries are just starting to design their inventories while others have completed national and research inventories using different methodologies such as remote sensing, field plots, and LIDAR. Technical gaps include forest inventory design and implementation, forest inventory attributes for carbon measurement, and remote sensing classification and modeling. Central America SilvaCarbon works to improve forest inventories in the region so that they are statistically robust and integrate both country and regional level information needs. The program also engages with the region on new ways to integrate inventory data with remote sensing. It supports South-South cooperation and continues to engage with Global SilvaCarbon activities, cultivates a network of forest inventory and terrestrial carbon technical experts and coordinates with other donors and partners to ensure complementarity. South-South collaboration takes place when capacity is built in one partner country and they, in turn, take a lead or assist in training other partnering countries within the program.
The Sustainable Wetland Adaptation and Mitigation Program is a global research collaboration to enhance knowledge and build scientific capacity for the study of tropical wetlands. In South America, this initiative entails a partnership between the USDA Forest Service, the Center for International Forestry Research, U.S. Agency for International Development, and several partner institutions in the host countries. South America study areas include forested peatland and mangroves as well as mountain wetlands in Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and Brazil.
These ecosystems have been identified by the participating countries as high priority for implementing activities to reduce deforestation and forest degradation, and for improved protection and management. The work in South America will contribute data to the global database of information about wetlands maintained by the Center for International Forestry Research, based in Indonesia.