Heritage Colombia (HECO): Maximizing the Contributions of Sustainably Managed Landscapes in Colombia for Achievement of Climate Goals Colombia

The Heritage Colombia (HECO) project is a 10-year initiative designed to protect and restore landscapes in Colombia through a Project Finance for Permanence (PFP) model. It targets five mosaics—Caribbean, San Lucas, Central Andes, Orinoco Transition, and Heart of the Amazon—covering 6.6 million hectares. The project focuses on strengthening governance, establishing participatory climate monitoring systems, and implementing land restoration and rehabilitation to reduce GHG emissions and improve water regulation. It requests USD 43 million from the GCF, complemented by USD 102.2 million in co-financing from the Government of Colombia and WWF. Key goals include the gazettement of the San Lucas Mountains protected area and the expansion of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta National Park.

• The project expects to reduce, avoid, or remove 46.3 million tCO2eq over its 30-year lifespan, contributing between 13.8% and 17.8% of Colombia's targeted reduction from deforestation by 2030.
• The project targets a total of 16,944,180 beneficiaries, with 329,658 direct beneficiaries and 16,614,522 indirect beneficiaries, maintaining a 51% female distribution.
• The project utilizes a Project Finance for Permanence (PFP) approach to address a structural financial gap, aiming to secure USD 7.2 million in annual recurring public domestic resources by the end of the 10-year implementation period.
• The project will bring 6.6 million hectares under management, representing more than 5.8% of Colombia's territory, across five mosaics: Caribbean, San Lucas, Central Andes, Orinoco Transition, and Heart of the Amazon.
• Key land-use interventions include the restoration of 8,536 hectares in eight protected areas and the rehabilitation of 5,912 hectares in nine protected areas using agroforestry and silvopasture.
• The project aims to complete the designation and gazettement of the San Lucas Mountains as a new protected area covering 470,856 hectares and expand the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta National Park by approximately 181,753 hectares.
• The project will establish 13 new weather stations and 6 water gauge stations to improve hydro-meteorological data collection and create six environmental early warning systems.
• Financial sustainability will be primarily driven by the General System of Royalties (SGR) and the national carbon tax, with the government committing a minimum of USD 3 million per year from carbon tax revenues.
• The project identifies significant climate risks, including a 0.198ºC per decade temperature increase from 1980-2011 and increasing variability in precipitation patterns leading to droughts, flooding, and landslides.
• The project's total financing is USD 145.2 million, consisting of a USD 43 million GCF grant and USD 102.2 million in co-finance from the Government of Colombia (USD 69.4 million) and WWF (USD 32.8 million).

APA

Green Climate Fund (2023). Heritage Colombia (HECO): Maximizing the Contributions of Sustainably Managed Landscapes in Colombia for Achievement of Climate Goals Colombia. https://www.greenclimate.fund/sites/default/files/document/fp203-wwf-colombia_0.pdf

Chicago

Green Climate Fund. Heritage Colombia (HECO): Maximizing the Contributions of Sustainably Managed Landscapes in Colombia for Achievement of Climate Goals Colombia. 2023. https://www.greenclimate.fund/sites/default/files/document/fp203-wwf-colombia_0.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Green Climate Fund |title=Heritage Colombia (HECO): Maximizing the Contributions of Sustainably Managed Landscapes in Colombia for Achievement of Climate Goals Colombia |date=11 April 2023 |url=https://www.greenclimate.fund/sites/default/files/document/fp203-wwf-colombia_0.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{greenclimatefund2023heritage, author = {{Green Climate Fund}}, title = {{Heritage Colombia (HECO): Maximizing the Contributions of Sustainably Managed Landscapes in Colombia for Achievement of Climate Goals Colombia}}, institution = {Green Climate Fund}, year = {2023}, month = apr, url = {https://www.greenclimate.fund/sites/default/files/document/fp203-wwf-colombia_0.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }