Project DecisionES held its coordination meeting in Costa Rica

• CATIE, in Turrialba, was the site of this space in which 15 researchers from 10 different organizations participated.

19 June 2023. The DecisionES project, which aims to improve forest management planning and policy analysis through the development of an integrated and multifunctional approach to the provision of ecosystem services, effectively contributing to service delivery in times of climate change, held its coordination meeting on June 14-16 at CATIE ("Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center") in Costa Rica.  

The meeting was attended by 15 researchers from 10 of the 17 organizations involved in the project, including CATIE, Forest Bioengineering Solutions (FBS), Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC, its Spanish acronym, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile), Centro de Ciencia y Tecnología Forestal de Cataluña de España (CTFC, its Spanish acronym, Center of Forestry Science and Technology of Cataluña, Spain.), Instituto Sistemas Complejos de Ingeniería (ISCI, its Spanish acronym, Complex Engineering Systems Institute), Pennsylvania State University, University of Eastern Finland, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid España (UPM, its Spanish acronym, Polytechnic University of Madrid Spain), University of Sao Paulo and University of Washington.

CATIE was represented by Leida Mercado, Director of Research for Inclusive Green Development; Pablo Imbach, leader of the Climate Action Unit; Ney Ríos, researcher of the Watershed, Water and Soil Security Unit; Bárbara Viguera, researcher of the Environmental Economics and Sustainable Agribusiness Unit; and Chelsia Moraes, researcher of the Agroforestry and Coffee and Cocoa Genetic Improvement Unit.

The DecisionES project has adopted an innovative dissemination and communication approach to transfer technology and knowledge to improve forest management planning and policy analysis.

Among the specific objectives is the generation of knowledge through the following points:

• Project forest landscapes and ecosystem service provision under different management regimes.
• Integrate ecosystem management planning and policy process to effectively address sustainability concerns in ecosystem service provision.
• Develop software tools that encompass all ecosystem management planning models and methods generated by DecisionES.
• Create a communication and dissemination platform to facilitate the use of the new decision support tools by stakeholders in each country or geographic region.

These objectives will be achieved by integrating the development of knowledge and tools within the framework of the organized work. The DecisionES project is based on a five-year exchange program involving 17 institutions from various countries, including Spain, the United States, Portugal, Chile, Canada, Brazil, Finland, Sweden, Germany and Costa Rica.

This project promotes collaboration and knowledge exchange between researchers from Europe and the Americas, thus strengthening global cooperation in the field of forest management and ecosystem services.

Imbach noted that after the meeting, issues and bidirectional possibilities were identified and explored to capitalize on this interaction.