A meeting of experts from throughout the Central American Dry Corridor (CADC) convened at the University of Costa Rica in September 2017 for a series of lectures, briefings and site visits relating to the region. A Consensus Statement (Declaración de Participantes del Taller UCREA-PICSC 25-29 sept, 2017) was formulated relating to the common challenges (poverty, food security, extreme hydroclimatic events, and climate change) confronting the nearly 11 million people living in the countries of the contiguous CADC (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua). These messages also address potential solutions. The Consensus Statement encompasses key messages including: there is a need of understanding how climate change will specifically affect the CADC. This region has the characteristics of a distinct territory, though each community is “different with respect to the problematics of development it faces”. Effective research will necessarily be multi-sectoral, encompassing environmental, economic, social, human, political and institutional dimensions. The effects of extreme events like drought and floods especially affect the populations with the highest levels of poverty, causes losses in productive activities, changes life conditions and creates inequalities on the distinct territorial levels”. To achieve food security throughout the region, the participants affirmed that an immediate objective was the appropriate management of the essential resources [soil, water, land]. The Program should “take into account the needs of the various countries and promote the necessary alliances between the distinct sectors with the objective of coordinating and strengthening forces” for development. The experts stated the importance of the regional academic community in supporting “strategies and approaches to sustainable integrated development based on interventions that are science- and research-based”. The importance of “learning from the experiences of other countries like Israel, which have developed technologies and innovations in the efficient management of their scarce natural resources, especially water and soil in various states of aridity,” was stressed
