The Central American region Climate Perspective for the period of December 2009-March 2010 was prepared.
Panama City, Republic of Panama. The XXIX Central America Climate Forum was held on November 18-19, 2009 with the financial support of the European Union in the context of the Environmental Degradation and Vulnerability Reduction Program (PREVDA) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The Forum was organized by CATHALAC per invitation of Panama’s Electrical Transmission Company (ETESA) with the objective of preparing the Central American region Climate Perspective for the period of December 2009-March 2010. http://www.google.com.pa/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4SKPB_enPA273PA274&q=Perspectiva+del+Clima+para+el+per%c3%adodo+Diciembre+2009-Marzo+2010.
Present in the event was the representative for the Executive Secretary of the Costa Rica based Regional Water Resources Committee (CRRH, in Spanish) Patricia Ramírez; also Graciela Calzadilla, Director of the Electric Transmission Company (ETESA, in Spanish) as well as representatives of the CATHALAC- SIMEPAR consortium, among other important regional stakeholders.
The Climate Forum of Central America (FCAC, in Spanish) is a working group led by the Regional Water Resources Committee of the Central American Isthmus ((CRRH/SICA) where meteorology, climate and hydrology experts from Meteorological Services, Universities and Private Businesses of the Central American Region participate and quarterly generate climate information forecasts for the region.
At the end of the workshop the quarterly “Climate Regional Perspective” for December 2009 through March 2010 (D09-EFM10) in Central America was issued and it is considered the basic document for capacity strengthening for Central American climate forecast regular issuing, updating and verification and their application in agriculture, fishing, water resources management, risk management and food security. Additional to these results, climate perspective dissemination for the above mentioned period to a wider scope of interested parties in the region will be achieved.
This information and forecasting provide decision making support to the countries and societies in general, which will to a certain degree, allow preventing climate events’ impacts that have historically caused pain and economic losses to the Central American society. http://www.aguayclima.com/clima/foroclimatico.htm.
The Forum is one of the follow up actions of the Program “Climate Forecasts for Central America and their Application” that initiated with the Regional Forum “Climate Forecasts and their Applications: Towards a New Century” which was held in Belize in May, 2000. At the time recommendations were given to increase information and climate forecasts for decision making in activities that are vulnerable to Central America climate variability: agriculture, tourism, and energy, among others, including national emergency entities and society in general.
Its relevance to generate this important climate information and for the Disaster Reduction and Impact Strategy highlighted by the Isthmus Presidents at their XXII Summit Declaration held on December, 2002 in San José, Costa Rica.
In this cooperation framework, PREVDA, which is part of the Central American Integration System (SICA, in Spanish), with the support of the European Union seek to contribute consolidating the regional integration by working with the Natural Disasters Prevention Coordinating Center in Central America, (CEPREDENAC, in Spanish), the CRRH and the Environment and Development Central American Commission (CCAD) in order to reduce the water related disaster risks through environmental management and the integrated water resources management.
