Climate change adaptation in Central America: A review of the national policy efforts

Abstract

The latest comparative studies of climate policies reinforce the fundamental importance of employing adaptation planning alongside national development strategies. While these studies are necessary to document and share the knowledge of the practices and experiences undertaken at the national level, documents are still scarce on regions of interest such as Central America. This article scrutinizes the state of adaptation planning through an exhaustive investigation of adaptation policy documents, consisting of National Adaptation Strategies, National Climate Legislation, and National Adaptation Action Plans, which are common in all six Central American countries. The findings reveal a region with an intricate yet progressive trend toward adaptation policies, with each country showing different speeds and qualities of adoption. An increasing learning curve has allowed for the emergence of two generations of adaptation policies with several improved features, including horizontal and vertical coordination, monitoring systems, and the inclusion of heterogeneous instruments to implement these systems. Yet, institutional challenges outside the adaptation realm could hinder the progress attained, due to factors such as political and economic crisis and institutional fragility. Further research into the broader political and governance landscape is needed, focusing on if and how climate policies should address political instability and institutional fragility as vulnerability stressors.

Policy integration of climate change adaptation in Central America: A review for development, land‐use planning, and risk management

“…These four countries also share a similar gross domestic product (GDP) lower than US$4500, and a human development index between 0.625 and 0.685. Costa Rica and Panama have better indicators in terms of vulnerability (between 50 and 100 most vulnerable countries) and GDP (more than US$12,000 and US$15,000, respectively), and a human development index of over 0.776 (Segura et al, 2022). Moreover, these two nations have the highest level of democracy, according to The Economist Intelligence Unit (2023) (full and flawed democracy, respectively).…”

“…These three combined are usually known as the “dedicated approach”; see Figure 1 (Runhaar et al, 2018). In this regard, Segura et al (2022) inquire about an important advancement in the process of dedicated adaptation policies in CA, documenting that all six countries have approved new legislation, policies, and plans dedicated to mitigation and adaptation to CC. As early as 2006, the first strategies on CC were approved.…”

“…These points have been researched for climate change adaptation (CCA) with interesting results in Europe (Biesbroek et al, 2010) and in CA. Segura et al (2022) detect a certain level of progress in the prerequisites for mainstreaming in all countries, namely delegating responsibility to a leading institution to guide the process, creating institutional arrangements such as the interinstitutional committees for CCA and units specialized on CC in several sectoral ministries, and vertical coordination with lower tiers of government. The existence of these prerequisites refers to the process of institutionalization of CCA within departments and ministries otherwise foreign to the topic.…”

“…These strategies can be translated as the main ideas regarding the need to address CCA. A second wave of policy outcomes created direct mandates to address the issue as part of different departments, evolving in certain countries into climate laws (Guatemala and Honduras, for example) or law reforms (El Salvador and Nicaragua) (Segura et al, 2022).…”

“…These legislation efforts created the institutions needed to help the policy integration efforts, such as specialized CC units in different departments, interdepartmental committees, and spaces for the participation of the local level of government (Segura et al, 2022).…”