The sounds of life hides in the vast green of the ancient forest, the natives and other mammals

are
collecting food, the birds in the sky sing to each other, until a scorched smell and the roar of
distant beast interrupts the peace. A fire consumes everything in its path, pushing the living out of
their home.

In 2019 the world was shock by videos and photos of the amazon forest burning. The president of
Brazil supported the man-made fires because the new farming land would translate to economic
growth. Worldwide, millions of hectares of forest had been lost mostly through conversion to
other land uses. However, countries like Costa Rica are successfully implementing public policies
to reverse deforestation, by the end of the 1970s, about thirty percent of the territory was
covered by forests, while in 2020, it reached more than fifty percent. This article is an exploration
of how Costa Rica see Forest preservation as a service and integrate it to their economy.

In the late seventies studies agree that more than 55 thousand hectares is the annual rate of
deforestation in Costa Rica and reveal that less than a third of the national territory (31.1%) is
what remains of forest (Silvander, 1977, Pérez & Protti,1978, as cited in FONAFIFO, 2005). But
barely five years after the situation became more extreme. In 1984, another coverage study
(Junkov-1984 as cited in FONAFIFO, 2005), which indicated that the forest mass had decreased: to
only 26.1% of the national territory, this was equivalent to 1,333,710 hectares. By that time, the
rate of deforestation had already risen to 59,000 hectares per year, giving the country a desert-like
appearance. In 1998, the Costa Rican government announced that the country was deforesting
the same amount of area that it was recovering and planting. In other words, that the rate of
forest cover loss had reached zero. From then on, further forest cover recovery would be the next
challenge.

One of the factors of the success in stopping reforestation is the creation of the National Forestry
Financing Fund (FONAFIFO) and the Environmental Services Payment Program (SPP). The main
purpose of this institutions is to finance small and medium-sized producers in reforestation,
afforestation, forest nurseries, agroforestry systems, recovery of denuded areas and technological
changes for the use and industrialization of forest resources. They develop the Environmental
Services Payment Program a program in which that recognizes the services provided by the forest
beyond timber. The program conceptualized as a subsidy to the forest producer, and the
beginning of payment for the services that the forest provides, seen as a fair recognition to those
who are responsible for protecting the water, scenic beauty and biodiversity of the country,
among other goods and services. For a nation that has tourism as one of its main sources of
foreign exchange, services such as natural beauty and biodiversity are definitely strategic.
FONAFIFO's budget is a product of several sources like the income from the consumption tax on
fossil fuels, agreements with other institutions, loans and donations.
There are four types of environmental clearly established services that FONAFIFO is authorized to
pay for:

1. Mitigation of Greenhouse Gas emissions (reduction, absorption, fixation, and storage of

carbon).

2. Water protection for urban, rural or hydroelectric use.

3. Biodiversity protection for conservation and sustainable, scientific and pharmaceutical use,
research and genetic improvement, protection of ecosystems and life forms.
j
4. Natural scenic beauty for tourism and scientific purposes.

There are several vulnerable communities have benefited from the payment of environmental
services. The forestry sector generates at least 18 thousand permanent jobs, almost all of them in
the poorest sectors of the country, places like San Carlos, Sarapiqui, Upala, Los Chiles, Nicoya and
Nandayure.

More than a dozen indigenous communities and around 21,000 hectares of indigenous territory
are currently integrated into the program. For example, the communities of Talamanca, Salitre,
Conte Burica, Ujarrás, the Cabécar Indigenous Territory, the Guaymí Indigenous Territory, the
Cabagra Indigenous Reserve, the Cabécar Nairi Awiri Indigenous Reserve, the Talamanca Bribrí
Indigenous Territory, and the Guaymí Indigenous Reserve of Coto Brus.

Another important sector that has benefited is the women that own forest and plantation. As part
of its distribution policies, FONAFIFO involve as many women as possible, and hundreds of them
are currently participating in the program. In the first years of payment for environmental services
operation, 350 women had already been included, almost 20% of the beneficiaries. In 2000, the
number of women grew by more than two hundred percent. In terms of hectares contracted each
year, the percentage of hectares contracted to women grow from 4% to 16% in that period in
relation to the total number of hectares contracted to women in 2004.

the success of reforestation policies in Costa Rica is undeniable, however, they are not exempt
from criticism. The indices are questioned not because it is denied that reforestation is taking
place but due to the lack of satellite monitoring the old data is not as reliable, so the amount grow
is doubtful given the lack of knowledge of the initial forest state. Another criticism of the model is
that it perpetuates the capitalist logic, where it does not seek to change our form of production
and relationship with the environment, but rather perpetuates an economistic relationship with
the environment. there is validity in these questions, however, a revolution of our production
model requires a high degree of cooperation and agreements that can take decades or more, and
much more time to implement what has been agreed upon, while the problems of deforestation
are urgent and need to be addresses quickly, something that the Costa Rican program is.
Human beings are capable of attaching value to anything. Before we knew that gold was an
electrical conductor, it was decided that it was valuable just because it was shiny. Diamonds are
abundant and have limited practical application but people bought them for a lot of money. At
the moment there is a craze for digital art know as NFTs, millions of dollars have been used to buy
mass produce digital pictures. What the government of Costa Rica has done with the
environmental payments service is different to the former examples is that the program doesn’t
assign value to forest but recognize it. if as a society we invest as much as we do in gold, jewelry or
digital art in our own ecosystem the world would be a better place that values politically,
ecologically, socially, culturally and economically the environmental services it receives from its
natural resources.

References:

Meza Picado,v., Alfaro Jiménez, K,. Bedoya Arrieta Monserrat Romero, R,. Valerio Madrigal, M.A,.
Montenegro Salas, P. (2019). Reforestación comercial en costa rica regiones huetar atlántica,
huetar norte y chorotega [Commercial reforestation in Costa Rica in the Huetar Atlantic, Northern
Huetar and Chorotega regions]. https://www.fonafifo.go.cr/es/documentos/publicaciones/

Fondo Nacional de Financiamiento Forestal de Costa Rica[FONAFIFO] (2005). FONAFIFO: Más de

una década de acción [FONAFIFO: More than a decade of action].

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations[FAO] and United Nations Environment
and Development[UNED]. (2020). The State of the World’s Forests 2020.
https://doi.org/10.4060/ca8642en