The Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE) of Costa Rica and the Ministry of Environment (MIAMBIENTE) of Panama signed their endorsement of the Strategic Action Program of the Binational Sixaola River Basin. This planning tool was developed to move towards Integrated Water Resource Management in this shared basin.

This is a milestone of the Project “Towards the Transboundary Integrated Water Resource Management of the Sixaola River Basin shared by Costa Rica and Panama,” funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and executed by the Organization for Tropical Studies (OET) of Costa Rica. It is divulgated in communication actions as Proyecto Conectando Comunidades y Ecosistemas (traduced from Spanish as Connecting Communities and Ecosystems).

The Strategic Action Program (SAP) is a negotiated policy document between each country's environmental and water governing institutions, represented by the two Ministries. This is the second tool for improving governance, devolved after a Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA), a technical analysis of the environmental problems that affect the Sixaola Basin due to human activity. 

Both TDA and SAP were developed following the methodology of GEF. The SAP was built around five thematic groups addressing eight environmental problems the TDA prioritized. The document was developed during seven workshops between November 2023 and April 2024.  

80 people, mostly officials from various Costa Rica and Panama institutions, participated in developing the SAP document. In addition, local actors contributed to the process through a participatory platform, including 44 leaders representing women's organizations and representatives of the seven Indigenous territories from the Sixaola Basin. The SAP includes more than 160 strategic actions, of which more than 50 promote women's participation.

Planning and future financing to advance toward an IWRM

After MINAE and MIAMBIENTE endorse this proposal, a proposal will be sent to the GEF to request future international cooperation financing to implement the SAP. Other sources of financing, public and private, will be explored, including governmental institutions, multilateral and bilateral development banks, and the private sector.

“This Program is a milestone of cooperation between Costa Rica and Panama. It establishes strategic and specific objectives to solve critical problems and crises affecting the environment and more than 34.000 inhabitants of the Sixaola Basin. The process included diverse perspectives of local actors: institutionality, groups of women, and representatives of indigenous peoples”, said the Vice Minister of Strategic Management of MINAE, Carlos Isaac Pérez Mejía.

“It is important to highlight that the success of this program will depend on intergovernmental coordination, maintaining a participatory approach with our communities as a source of information to achieve the objectives of this program optimally. The SAP of the Sixaola Basin represents an invaluable opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to the sustainability of our natural resources, promoting the improvement of our communities and the ecosystem services,” said Panama Environment Minister Milciades Concepción.

Download the Strategic Action Program of the Sixaola Basin here.

About the project

Towards the Transboundary Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) of the Sixaola River Basin shared by Costa Rica and Panama is a GEF project implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and executed by the Organization for Tropical Studies (OET) of Costa Rica.

Divulgated in communication actions as Proyecto Conectando Comunidades y Ecosistemas (traduced from Spanish as Connecting Communities and Ecosystems), it works with communities and institutions of Costa Rica and Panama to: Strengthen coordinated transboundary action; Set the conditions to achieve real water management; Restore river ecosystems; Reduce risks of disasters by flooding; and Collaborate in the reduction of the excessive agrochemicals use in banana and plantain crops.

For more information, please contact Manuel Sancho Gutiérrez, (manuel.sancho@tropicalstudies.org), visit the project page on iwlearn.net or the project page.