América Latina
IUFRO encourages and supports regional science collaboration in Latin America through a combination of activities:
Established as IUFRO Working Party 6.03.04, the Latin American and Caribbean information systems network (RIFALC) facilitates forestry research in Latin America and the Caribbean by collecting and supplying various types of documents and information (bibliographical, statistical, terminological, reference, etc.).
IUFRO Working Party 6.13.01 - Iberoamerican forest- and environmental law - specifically focuses on forest and environmental legislation as a key instrument for the conservation and sustainable management of forests in Latin America.
The main partner of IUFRO-SPDC in Latin America currently is the Center for Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education (CATIE) in Costa Rica. The mission of CATIE is to contribute to rural poverty reduction in tropical America by promoting competitive and sustainable agriculture and natural resource management, through higher education, research and technical cooperation. CATIE’s membership comprises 14 regular member countries and institutions as well as six affiliated members. As a network of countries mainly in Central America, CATIE is an excellent professional partner for various capacity development and networking projects.