Panama to be home to lnternational forest protection center

PANAMA will  become  home to  the International Center for the Implementation of Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (Iciredd).

The announcement  came Thursday, December 10 from  Mirei Endara, Panama’s  Minister of Environment, who was participating in the Paris Conference on climate change.

It  followed the signing of the agreement establishing the center, by Panama, Guinea Bissau, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.

The initiative was presented by President  Juan Carlos Varela, on November 30 , in his speech at the Climate Change Summit to 150 heads of state. It was supported by to countries with tropical forests in Africa, Latin America and Asia.

“The launch of this ambitious initiative adds value to the activities of protection, conservation, restoration and forest management to keep global temperatures below 1.5 ° C,” said Endara.

This center will facilitate collaboration between governments, private sector and international organizations for sustainable forest management, international trade in carbon emission reduction and access to funds to implement development programs and projects related to conservation and management of  aa million hectares of tropical forests in  the alliance, according to Endara.