Central America—Regional Climate Change Program (RCCP) (Programa Regional de Cambio Climatico—PRCC)

This regional initiative is identifying solutions and action plans to permit the countries and territories of Central America and the Dominican Republic to respond to the effects of climate change. The program is implemented by five organizations: Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE), International Union for Conservation of Nature, CARE, Terra Global Capital LLC, and DAI—and implements activities related to both mitigation and adaptation.

As a subcontractor to CATIE, DAI has three main deliverables: a regional clearinghouse (Climate Services Portal) based on user-centered design requirements; a Global Development Alliance related to the sustainability of the Climate Services Portal; and decision-support tools related to climate change adaptation, biodiversity, and water.

Select Results

• Finalized system requirements for the Climate Services Portal in consultation with regional scientists and meteorologists, technologists, government officials, regional weather services institutions, USAID staff, NASA SERVIR staff, and the project team.
• Hosted the NASA Space Apps Challenge in Costa Rica in 2015 in partnership with Instituto Tecnologico de Costa Rica, the top IT university in the country; teams guided and oriented by the RCCP specialists won second- and third-place prizes for Costa Rica.
• Created the “Coffee Cloud” with NASA Space Apps participants, an app that centralizes and disseminates information and connects decision makers around daily and seasonal forecasting for coffee crops, and reports outbreaks of diseases such as rust that affect coffee beans. Large coffee institutes led by Promecafe have accepted the Coffee Cloud as their official tool to respond to coffee rust throughout the region.