IAES provides funding for environmental and child survival projects, including technical and financial follow-up. Each year the action plan is reviewed to assure that projects funded meet community and environmental needs and that the quality of the NGO and community based projects continues to improve.

FIAES bases its programs on the Initiative of the Americas Agreement, the El Salvador National Environmental Policy and Strategy and the National Biodiversity Strategy, prioritizing natural areas and resources, the poverty index and natural heritage. 

The project areas funded by FIAES include,

1. Ecosystem Management

The adequate management of ecosystems requires addressing the ties between humans and their environment and the valorization of ecological processes and services to facilitate informed decision-making.  This cross-cutting strategy promotes activities to recuperate and maintain the composition, structure, and function of ecosystems to improve the condition and access to ecosystem services for improved welfare and livelihood of the Salvadoran population.  FIAES is the only funding available at a national level that provides financial grants for natural areas both within and outside of the national protected area system.    

Objective:

Contribute to the restoration and conservation of ecosystems and ecological services for the welfare of the Salvadoran population.  

Components include:

1. Ecosystem recuperation and conservation.
2. Adaptation and reducing vulnerability to climate change.
3. Management of natural protected areas.

2. Territorial Planning and Management (Agrosystems and Water Resources)

Ecosystem management, the conservation, restoration and use of ecosystem services cannot be isolated from the processes of production and development in complete and complex landscapes. For this reason it is necessary to encourage local and participatory territorial management initiatives that integrate ecosystem, agro-ecosystem and water resource management.

This strategic area focuses on the promotion of sustainable productive processes with an integrated vision of territorial management that prioritizes the relations between social and ecological systems through the development and strengthening of multi-lateral cooperation.

Objective:

Contribute to the sustainable and integrated management of ecosystems, agro-ecosystems and water resources to improve environmental management and promote cleaner and more efficient consumption and production.

Components include:

1. Strengthening and implementation of entrepreneurial activities in sustainability.
2. Water resource management
3. Territorial management tools

3. Contamination and Prevention Control

FIAES funds activities that promote the adoption of clean production practices and public/private environmental responsibility.  It encourages the development and implementation of innovative technologies to solve environmental problems such as solid waste management, household and industrial wastewater treatment, water, soil and air quality monitoring, as well as environmental awareness programs to strengthen citizen responsibility and application of environmental laws and regulation.  

Objective:

Strengthen processes of contamination prevention and control. Components include:

1. Household and agro industrial solid waste management.
2. Household and agro industrial wastewater management.
3. Air quality management

4. Energy

FIAES provides support for energy management initiatives that promote the saving and efficient use of energy, including large-scale dissemination of information about renewable technologies. This strategic area strengthens capacities across private and public sectors, encouraging the development of energy efficiency programs and projects and identifying renewable energy investments with the objective of reducing carbon emissions and contributing to reducing global warming.

Objective:

Support the sustainable management of energy resources through the implementation and improvement of energy efficiency and the development of renewable resources.  

Components include:

1. Energy efficiency
2. Renewable energy
3. Awareness building tools