AdaptACTIVA Business Fair showcases rural entrepreneurship in the northern part of Costa Rica

•  Entrepreneurs from the first call of AdaptACTIVA presented their projects, explored growth opportunities and established new commercial relationships for their businesses.

At the Business Fair "“Innovative Businesses in response to climate change” held on Tuesday, August 13, 25 enterprises selected in the first call for non-reimbursable funds AdaptACTIVA presented their innovative projects to address climate change in areas such as livestock, agriculture, forestry and nature tourism, through the implementation of Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) measures.

These enterprises come from 15 cantons in northern Costa Rica, including San Carlos, Sarapiqui, Pococí, Guácimo, Alajuela, Alfaro Ruiz, Valverde Vega, Grecia, Naranjo and Poás, and benefited from seed capital from the Development Banking System through a partnership between the “Scaling Ecosystem-based Adaptation Measures in Rural Latin America” Program (EbA LAC) and the ACTIVA-CATIE innovation and entrepreneurship laboratory.

The business fair took place at the Costa Rica Convention Center and began with a panel in which four entrepreneurs shared their experience of being part of this first call for proposals and receiving seed capital to launch their projects.

“Through AdaptACTIVA we were able to promote our business idea, through these funds we were able to acquire equipment for the formulation of our fertilizers and bio-inputs, and create strategic alliances for the reproduction of microorganisms and bio-controllers,” said Wendy Rojas, a neighbor of La Palmera de San Carlos and leader of the Finca Integral Tres Novillos enterprise.

Afterwards, attendees toured the stands of the entrepreneurs and there was also a space for stands de las personas emprendedoras y también hubo un espacio para networking, with the objective of exploring growth opportunities and establishing new commercial relationships for their businesses.

“I think it is very important that in a space like this we can connect with other entrepreneurs to learn from them, with potential customers and government authorities, and to receive recommendations and observations from the different audiences that came to this activity,” said Fernando Guerrero, from the specialty coffee project Finca Flor de Abril.

Sabrina Geppert, coordinator of the EbA LAC Program for Costa Rica, commented that “it is strategic for the program to have a direct impact on the lives of the most vulnerable people by integrating Ecosystem-based Adaptation into the development of rural businesses. With Adapt-ACTIVA we have given an important boost to innovation in the way we provide support to entrepreneurs. By introducing a pre-incubation process that addresses the understanding of climate risk in the business, and prepares the entrepreneur in devising responses to these risks, it enables more resilient business ideas to mature. With ACTIVA-CATIE's specialized advice, these ideas have been translated into high quality business plans, and - we hope - with a higher degree of survival”.

Meanwhile, the director of ACTIVA-CATIE, Vladimir Valera, stressed that “it is an immense satisfaction to show the general public, but especially the heads of the MEIC, MINAE and MAG, the results of the collective work of more than a year, among entrepreneurs, who are the real architects of innovative businesses in the face of climate change, with the support of our team of CATIE mentors and the financing provided by the Development Banking System, demonstrating that the adoption of good practices that reduce vulnerability to climate change does not conflict with the profitability and sustainability of rural businesses.

Applications are currently open for the second call for AdaptACTIVA. Those wishing to participate for up to 7 million colones in seed capital funds can consult the participating districts and complete the application form at https://forms.gle/8mMMpfAYgxvsQNA86.

The program “Scaling up Ecosystem-based Adaptation Measures in rural Latin America” is supported by the government of the Republic of Costa Rica, funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV) through its International Climate Initiative (IKI)International Climate Initiative (IKI), and implemented by GIZ as lead agency, in partnership with IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) and CATIE ( Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center). It aims to increase the resilience to climate change of vulnerable communities and ecosystems in rural areas of Ecuador, Guatemala and Costa Rica.

ACTIVA-CATIE is an innovation and entrepreneurship laboratory led by the Forests and Biodiversity in Productive Landscapes Unit of CATIE (Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center) and accredited by the Development Banking System (SBD) to promote, through non-reimbursable funds and specialized advisory services, different businesses in rural Central America. Sistema de Banca para el Desarrollo (SBD) para impulsar, mediante fondos no reembolsables y asesorías especializadas, a diferentes negocios en la zona rural de Centroamérica.