The Great Forests of Mesoamerica (Central America) concentrate between 7% and 10% of all known life forms and extend across 266 000 km2—twice the size of Greece. It is the geographical area in which the EU has deployed the Great Mesoamerican Forests Program, a flagship of the Global Gateway strategy in the region that has begun its implementation in 2024, with an EU contribution of EUR 25.5 million, under a Team Europe approach.The program is the EU's most ambitious regional commitment in this matter. Last February the Team Europe implementing agencies met in Costa Rica to begin its implementation during a two-day kick-off workshop.In March 2024, Pierre-Louis Lempereur and Francois Roudié, respectively EU Ambassadors in Costa Rica and El Salvador/Central American Integration System walked in a tour through La Amistad (Costa Rica) and its surrounding. It is one of the Great Forests of Mesoamerica, at about 2,600 meters above sea. Together with officials from the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC), community leaders and local partners, the Ambassadors learned about good practices by communities in the sustainable use of forest resources that the EU is interested in replicating and scaling up.To take stock of the importance of protecting this unique natural environment, the Ambassadors traveled through part of the 80 hectares of protected primary forest. In this area, a group of families decided to invest in a forest management approach far to the traditional model of indiscriminate logging. With this project, the EU and the MSs aims —among other things— to demonstrate that experiences such as that of don William Solano's farm can serve as a model to successfully merge forest conservation and sustainable economic development in Mesoamerica.