The Latin America and Caribbean region is home to extensive areas of lowland and highland peatlands, largely in South America, all of which are critically important for carbon, water, biodiversity and food security services for mitigation and adaptation to climate change. Currently, SWAMP is working in seven countries in the Latin America and Caribbean region: Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico and Peru. These countries face a range of threats from unsustainable development programmes leading to rapid changes in land use, to non-existent legal frameworks and definitions resulting in inadequate regulations and policy gaps.
The goals of SWAMP in this region are to develop the information and regional capacity necessary to inform management and policy decisions and guide appropriate management of these ecosystems; to enable in-country partners to participate in international efforts to limit GHG emissions; and to promote resilient, climate-adapted ecosystems. In addition to supporting Sustainable Development Goals, SWAMP provides timely support to Latin American and Caribbean countries for improving and resubmitting their NDCs in time for the 2023 stocktake, and contributes to the Paris Agreement goal of stabilizing mean global temperature rise to 2°C or lower.
