Convention on biological diversity
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Progress so farThe Environmental Service Payments programme, executed through FONAFIFO in close coordination with SINAC, aims to protect primary forest, to allow secondary forest to flourish and to promote forest plantations to meet industrial demands for lumber and paper products. These goals are met through site-specific contracts with individual small- and medium-sized farmers. In all cases, participants must present a sustainable forest management plan certified by a licensed forestry regent, as well as carry out sustainable forest management activities throughout the life of individual contracts. Management plans include information on land cadastre, cartography and physical access; description of topography, soils, climate, drainage, actual land use and carrying capacity with respect to land use; plans for prevention of forest fires, illegal hunting and illegal harvesting; and monitoring schedules. Commitments associated with the environmental service contracts are registered with the deed to the property, such that contractual obligations transfer as a legal easement to subsequent owners for the life of the contract. Furthermore, landowners cede their rights to sequestered carbon to FONAFIFO to sell on the international market. Environmental service contracts are based upon the value of various services provided by primary and secondary forests, based in part upon studies conducted by the Costa Rica-based Tropical Science Center (see Table 1) and the World Bank (see Table 2). Regulations within Forestry Law No. 7575 establish the conditions for contracting environmental services. Contracts include: (a) Forest conservation easements: US$220 per hectare disbursed over a five-year period. Eighty-six percent of environmental service contracts in the FONAFIFO programme to date support forest conservation easements, which in large part are targeted at minimizing disturbance of vegetative cover in primary and mature secondary growth forest areas. (b) Sustainable forest management: US$342 per hectare disbursed over a five-year period. Nine percent of contracts in the FONAFIFO programme support sustainable forest management. (c) Reforestation: US$560 per hectare disbursed over a five-year period. Landowners must make a commitment to maintain reforested areas for a period of 15-20, depending upon tree species. Five percent of contracts in the FONAFIFO programme support reforestation of degraded and abandoned agricultural lands. For practical purposes, the ESP programme supports the implementation of Forestry Law No. 7575 by allowing the government to act as a market intermediary: FONAFIFO purchases environmental services from private landowners (e.g., carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation, hydrological services) and, in turn, sells these services to specific sectors which benefit from these resources. Table 1. Minimum, Medium and Maximum Annual Value (1996 US$/ha) for Environmental Services from Primary and Secondary Forests (Tropical Science Center, 1996)
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