During the COP25 climate summit, eight countries in Central America announced that they would protect Mesoamerica’s five large forests. In total, 10 million hectares of land will be restored and protected by the year 2030.
The five last major forests in the area, from Mexico in the north to Colombia in the south, store about 50 percent of the area’s coal and are also crucial for many species and people. There is a great biodiversity here and many endangered species live in their last habitats. In addition, forests are important for birds moving between South and North America.
However, forests are being destroyed rapidly today. Over the past 14 years, three of them have decreased in distribution by almost a quarter, mainly to become land for the meat industry.
The new cooperation between eight countries in the area, nature organizations and agricultural companies will now try to ensure that no more species in the forests are eradicated. The goal is to protect 10 million hectares of land, 500,000 hectares of forest will be restored and local and indigenous people will be taken into account.
The five major forests mentioned in the plan are the Maya Forest in Mexico, Guatemala and Belize, Moskitia in Nicaragua and Honduras, Indio Maíz-Tortuguero in Nicaragua and Costa Rica, Talamanca Region in Costa Rica and Panama, and Darien in Panama and Colombia.
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