Environment Peace Initiative for Colombia-(EPIC) Fondo Accin Ambiental y Niez -(FAAN)

This Program is part of USAID's efforts to conserve the Andean Amazon ecosystem, focusing on the most threatened region of the Colombian Amazon where the agricultural frontier and deforestation are rapidly expanding.

The program works in conservation corridors, establishing sustainable productive systems and connecting products to markets as an economic incentive to set aside and/or restore forest fragments.

It also provides capacity-building, policy-development and decision-making tools for local governments to scale up and sustain these efforts.

The program is also serving as a bridging mechanism between two larger Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) programs in the Pacific region.

The program strengthens community governance and livelihood activities to implement eight REDD+projects, involving 19 Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities and protecting over 800,000 hectares of forest in one the world's most important biodiversity hotspots.