Coordinating Association of Indigenous and Community Agroforestry in Central America

Summary

The Coordinating Association of Indigenous and Community Agroforestry in Central America is an non-governmental organisation (NGO) headquartered in Costa Rica and active throughout Central America. It has offices established in the majority of Central American countries and provides technical support to peasant and indigenous organisations (approximately 60 in all) active in subsistence agriculture and community natural resources management. One of ACICAFOC's priorities is to encourage and facilitate sustainable forest management. In Honduras and Guatemala, ACICAFOC works to promote forest management and to support community involvement in supply chains.

ACICAFOC is involved with REDD+ at the international level. It is part of the REDD+ SES Committee led by CARE international that is working to prepare a set of standards on safeguards. At the regional level, ACICAFOC is working with the Guatemalan indigenous NGO Sotz'il in an FCPF-funded programme to build indigenous and peasant organisational capacity in REDD+.

In Costa Rica, the National Forestry Financing Fund (FONAFIFO) has contracted ACICAFOC to help with the information dissemination stage of initial consultations on REDD+. At the time of writing (November 2013) it is organising five regional workshops with two or three smaller additional workshops in each region and aims to have held approximately 18 workshops throughout the country by the end of 2013.

ACICAFOC is an acredited civil society organisation before the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). ACICAFOC's board of directors is made up of a mix of indigenous and peasant leaders, with at least one representative from each country in which ACICAFOC operates.

ACICAFOC is one of three organisations that work with indigenous and peasant organisations at the regional level in Central America. The other two are: (i) the Central American Indigenous Council (Consejo Indígena de Centroamerica); and (ii) the Mesoamerican Peoples and Forests Alliance (Alianza Mesoamericana de Pueblos y Bosques). Both of these are more orientated towards political participation and the affirmation of indigenous rights.