Panama City, 3 July 2025. The CopernicusLAC Panama Centre is proud to announce that its official statement was published on the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (GPDRR), highlighting the Centre’s key role in supporting disaster risk reduction across Latin America and the Caribbean.
The statement, prepared by our Stakeholder Liaison Officer Claudia Herrera, underlines the transformative power of Earth Observation (EO) technologies in building local resilience and reducing disaster risks. It also highlights the role of the CopernicusLAC Panama Centre as a regional hub for translating free and open satellite data from Copernicus, the European Union’s Earth Observation programme, into actionable insights, supporting early warning systems, near real-time disaster monitoring, and risk mapping to empower local decision-makers with the information they need to take timely, evidence-based action.
“We are equipping communities and authorities with the insights needed to build safer, more resilient futures.”
Claudia Herrera
Latin America and the Caribbean is the second-most vulnerable region to disasters in the world, facing a diverse range of natural hazards. The statement reaffirms the Centre’s commitment to co-developing solutions to these threats with governments, civil society, and technical experts, bridging the gap between data and decision-making in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.
Published as part of the Multi-Stakeholder Statements in the official outcomes of GPDRR 2025, the full statement can be accessed here.
This recognition affirms the Centre’s contribution to global disaster risk reduction efforts and highlights the importance of accessible Earth Observation data in advancing communities resilience and preparedness.
About the CopernicusLAC Panama Centre
The activities of the Centre fall within the overall context of the EU-LAC Digital Alliance, which is a strategic framework to promote cooperation between the European Union (EU) and the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region on digital and space issues under the umbrella of the EU Global Gateway strategy. In this context, the European Space Agency (ESA) coordinates the implementation of the Centre on the basis of a Contribution Agreement with the Directorate General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA) of the European Commission, and in close collaboration with the Government of Panama, the MIRE (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and the SENACYT (National Secretariat for Science, Technology and Innovation).
The CopernicusLAC Panama Centre will serve as a platform for innovation in the Latin America and Caribbean region, supporting national and local entities in leveraging Copernicus data and information to enhance socio-economic benefits and resilience. The Centre provides opportunities for engagement and is developing tailor-made geospatial Pilot Services (addressing hydrometeorological hazards, geological hazards and risk exposure services), which are developed in close collaboration with local users and stakeholders, to whom they will be delivered to ensure that the unique needs of the region are addressed in the long term.
In addition, knowledge and skills transfer is a key element of the CopernicusLAC Panama Centre, which hosts a Digital Campus with access to training modules and educational resources for technical users and citizens alike. The Centre will also organise community-building events, policy dialogues and industry matchmaking, as well as hackathons and other Earth observation (EO) data challenges to stimulate user adoption of Copernicus data and innovation. These events will also foster cross-collaboration of EO, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and other relevant ecosystems.
Finally, the Centre will include the development of high-powered infrastructure and cloud computing for the LAC region. One of the ultimate objectives of the Centre is also to promote the development of communities of practice and strengthen capacities in the public sector, academia, the private sector and within social organisations in the knowledge and use of tools for DRR and other areas.