Community members across six Latin American countries have gathered to identify context-specific climate-related risks and solutions for peace, as part of a wider EU–UNEP effort on climate, environment, peace and security. 

Between April and June 2025, communities in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Colombia, and Ecuador came together for a cycle of participatory diagnostic workshops aimed to support them to plan and implement inclusive and gender-responsive interventions that build local resilience to climate-related risks for peace and stability.

The effort was part of the EU–UNEP Partnership on Climate Change, Environment, Peace and Security (2017–2027), materialized in Latin America through the Peace, Action, Resilience and Sustainability in Latin American Landscapes (PARES project). PARES supports fragile and crisis-affected regions, countries and communities to identify environment and climate-related security risks at the community, national and global levels, and to programme effective risk reduction and response measures, with a focus on nature-based solutions. 

The workshops were coordinated by the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE), UNEP’s regional implementing partner, and implemented by 12 local organizations engaged in the initiative: Asociación ECO, ASOVERDE, Fundación Defensores de la Naturaleza (Guatemala); ADEL La Unión (El Salvador); CODDEFFAGOLF, FENAPROCACAHO, Fundación Comunitaria Puca (Honduras); Fundación Tierra Viva, Corporación Toisán (Ecuador); Corporación Biocomercio Sostenible (Colombia); Fondo El Triunfo and Cecropia (Mexico). 

Inclusive and representative participation 

Across the six countries, the participatory workshops brought together 558 participants, of whom 41.2% were women and 21.7% identified as Indigenous or Afro-descendant. Representation varied by context, with particularly strong engagement in certain areas: in Guatemala’s Q’eqchi’ communities, 60% of participants were Indigenous, while in Honduras, Lenca groups made up 74% of the workshops. In Ambuquí, Ecuador, women constituted nearly two-thirds of participants and played a leading role in steering discussions on water access and native crops. In Tumaco, Colombia, Afro-descendant fishers and cacao farmers—representing 100% of the group—shared ancestral knowledge that is now informing local adaptation plans.

These inclusive spaces not only strengthened multi-stakeholder dialogue but also fostered local ownership of participatory methodologies. While challenges remain in ensuring meaningful youth engagement, the workshops demonstrated effective mobilization across all target landscapes, with growing commitment from partner organizations to sustain and expand these approaches.

What the diagnostics revealed 

The workshops generated participatory maps integrating livelihoods, ecosystems, ecosystem services, climate threats, and social conflicts, providing a strategic input for territorial planning. They also surfaced stories and knowledge often absent from formal planning: 

• Water conflicts: disputes between farmers and fishers in Honduras; fragmented irrigation governance in Ecuador; competition over scarce water in El Salvador. 

• Mining pressures: long-standing tensions around extractive concessions in Ecuador’s Intag Valley. 

• Deforestation and land pressures: cattle ranching pushing into páramo ecosystems; cardamom-driven forest loss in Honduras. 

• Traditional knowledge: revival of collective cacao mingas in Colombia; rediscovery of the cultural and productive value of the ovo crop in Ecuador. 

• Leadership: women in Ambuquí and Cecropia workshops taking visible roles in mapping and governance; Afro-descendant leaders in Tumaco anchoring discussions on mangrove stewardship. 

From diagnostics to solutions 

Building on the participatory diagnostics, the next phase will move from dialogue to action through the co-design of community-led Nature-based Solutions (NbS). Lessons identified will inform the design of a portfolio of interventions tailored to each landscape, resulting in 12 roadmaps that prioritize the most relevant NbS for local resilience, peace, and security. Communities will remain at the center of this process, with feedback and validation of findings taking place at the local level to ensure collective ownership of the proposals. Pilot projects will then be developed through participatory planning, aligning with local governance systems and incorporating territorial inputs generated during the workshops. To support implementation, technical follow-up and capacity-building visits will be carried out, strengthening the ability of communities to put NbS into practice. These efforts will be complemented by a regional Community of Practice, where knowledge and lessons will be shared across countries to influence national and regional dialogues. Ultimately, the development and documentation of 12 pilot projects will not only showcase concrete solutions but also generate evidence, good practices, and lessons learned, reinforcing how community-led action can address environmental risks while building peace and social cohesion across Latin America.