The challenge
Costa Rica was losing its forests to one of the world's fastest deforestation rates.
The case
In the 1980s Costa Rica had one of the highest deforestation rates in the world. In 1996 it banned clearing mature forest, and in 1997 it began a country-wide program paying landowners to protect forests, replant trees and manage land sustainably, funded largely by a fuel tax and later by charges on water users. Over the following decades forest cover recovered substantially, and nature tourism grew into a major industry. Reviews of the program note that its payments were not always well targeted at the land most at risk. According to the FAO, some 1,052,867.40 hectares were protected, managed, restored or reforested under the program between 1997 and 2014.
Why it worked
Paying people for the value forests provide made protection pay. Studies suggest the deforestation ban and falling cattle prices also did much of the work, so payments were one part of a wider package.
Sources
- FAO Mountain Partnership. Increasing mountain forest cover in Costa Rica.
- Pagiola, S. (2008). Payments for environmental services in Costa Rica. Ecological Economics.
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