PARES Project brings territorial experiences to the regional dialogue at COP4 of the Escazú Agreement

• Participation highlighted how participatory processes in territories across Latin America contribute to operationalizing access rights in contexts of climate change and socio-environmental tensions.

Within the framework of the Fourth Conference of the Parties (COP4) of the Escazú Agreement, the project Peace, Action, Resilience and Sustainability in Latin American Landscapes (PARES), implemented by CATIE (Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center) in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), contributed to the regional dialogue on the implementation of access rights to information, participation, and decision-making in contexts of climate change, conflict, and territorial governance.

The space enabled the connection of concrete field experiences with the principles promoted by the Escazú Agreement, demonstrating how these rights can be put into practice through structured participatory processes.

The PARES project operates in six countries—Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Colombia, and Ecuador—strengthening local capacities for territorial analysis, the design of Nature-based Solutions (NbS), and their articulation with decision-making spaces. In addition, it represents the first operation in Latin America under the EU–UNEP partnership on Climate, Environment, Peace and Security.

From landscapes to governance: lessons from practice

During the event, experiences were shared that demonstrate how participatory processes enable communities to identify threats, make power relations visible, and name socio-environmental conflicts, thereby creating conditions for more effective participation in decision-making.

The cases presented from Mexico and Colombia showed how these processes make historically excluded actors visible, open spaces for dialogue in contexts of tension, and transform the design of solutions according to territorial dynamics.

These lessons highlight that participation is not limited to a formal mechanism but rather constitutes a process that can have a tangible impact on territorial governance.

Implications for the implementation of the Escazú Agreement

Based on the analysis, it was emphasized that the risks faced by territories are systemic and interconnected, and that Nature-based Solutions generate differentiated contributions depending on the context. In this scenario, governance—in terms of who participates and how decisions are made—is a determining factor.

The discussion opened a key reflection for the public policy arena: how to ensure that these processes, which are already making the rights of the Escazú Agreement operational in territories, can be scaled up and contribute to the formulation and implementation of policies at the national level.

In this way, the participation of the PARES project in COP4 contributed to strengthening the dialogue between territorial experiences and regulatory frameworks, highlighting the role that governments can play in institutionalizing these approaches.