MARN and CATIE train Salvadoran specialists in the Ecological Condition Metric

• Three days of workshops enabled participants to deepen their understanding of theoretical foundations, field practices, and data analysis to implement ecological monitoring and evaluation systems.

In El Salvador, more than 25 specialists from public institutions, academia, and environmental organizations participated on November 25, 26, and 27 in a series of workshops to strengthen their capacities in applying the Ecological Condition Metric.

The activity, held in San Salvador, is part of the project for implementing this metric in the country’s ecosystems and agroecosystems. The initiative is led by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARN), with financing from the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF), administered by the Ministry of Economy (MINEC) and executed by CATIE (Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center), specifically through its research units of Forests and Biodiversity in Productive Landscapes (UBBPP) and Biostatistics.

The workshops, focused on the application of the Ecological Condition Metric for Ecosystems and Agroecosystems, were aimed at technical staff from MARN, the Salvadoran Coffee Institute, non-governmental organizations, academia, the Somos Río Lempa program, and other key stakeholders. The main objective was to strengthen national capacities to implement the condition metric, covering its theoretical foundations, field assessment, and subsequent data analysis.

On the first day, the CATIE technical team, in coordination with MARN, facilitated an in-depth session on the fundamental concepts of the metric, its origin in the Environmental Compensation Metric, as well as its objectives, structure, and the various ecological condition states. Its connection with monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) processes was also highlighted, providing a comprehensive understanding of the tool.

On the second day, participants conducted field practices to learn how to install demonstration plots following the protocol of the National Forest Inventory. The activity took place in Bicentenario Park, where ecological attributes were evaluated in both a broadleaf forest and a coffee agroecosystem, allowing for a comparison of methodologies and recognition of the specific characteristics of each ecosystem type.

The third day was dedicated to data analysis using real information collected by CATIE and MARN field teams, who successfully gathered 86 plots distributed across Salvadoran territory. The CEBA-Calc tool, developed by CATIE, was used to facilitate the automated estimation of the Ecological Condition Metric and to streamline the interpretation of the results obtained.

Among the main achievements of the training process were the strengthening of practical capacities for data collection and processing in the field, the development of technical skills for estimating ecological condition indicators and indices, the adoption of guidelines for implementing MRV systems, and the creation of exchange spaces among institutions sharing the vision of promoting ecosystem conservation and sustainable management.

This progress represents a significant step toward the effective implementation of the Environmental Compensation Metric and the Ecological Condition Metric in El Salvador, contributing to institutional strengthening and the improvement of ecological management strategies at the national level.