Forest conservationActive

Costa Rica Payments for Environmental Services (PSA/FONAFIFO)

Predating the modern voluntary carbon market by two decades, Costa Rica's PSA programme, created under Forest Law No. 7575 and administered by the state fund FONAFIFO, pays landowners directly for environmental services, greenhouse-gas mitigation chief among them.

National, Costa RicaNational forest covernone (Forest Law No. 7575 national PES scheme, not a carbon registry)
Image credit
Reforestar. Location context only; not a photograph of project implementation.Location context · Honsare · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2014 · Resized; display cropImage source ↗Licence ↗
OperatorFONAFIFO (Fondo Nacional de Financiamiento Forestal)
EcosystemNational forest cover
Standardnone (Forest Law No. 7575 national PES scheme, not a carbon registry)
StatusActive
LocationNational, Costa Rica
Overview

Inside the project

FONAFIFO describes the programme as a deliberate break from ordinary subsidy: a financial recognition by the State for the environmental services landowners provide.

It is funded chiefly by a 3.5% earmark of the national fuel tax, plus roughly $7 million a year from other sources, and has kept some 300,000 hectares under active contract at any given time out of 1.3 million hectares enrolled cumulatively since 1997.

1,300,000 ha
Enrolled cumulatively since 1997
300,000 ha
Active in any given year
18,000+
Families/cooperatives under contract

Objectives

  • Pay landowners for forest environmental services, including GHG mitigation
  • Maintain forest cover nationally under multi-year contracts

Approach

  • A national Payments for Environmental Services scheme funded through a fuel-tax earmark and other sources, administered by FONAFIFO.

Sources

Inspect 2 sources
  1. fonafifo.go.cr ↗https://www.fonafifo.go.cr/en/servicios/pago-de-servicios-ambientales/
  2. worldbank.org ↗https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2022/11/16/costa-rica-s-forest-conservation-pays-off

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