Payment for Environmental Services (PES) / Pago por Servicios Ambientales (PSA)
The first policy by Carlos Manuel Rodríguez to be analysed is the renowned Payment for Environmental Services (PES) passed into Costa Rican legislation in 1996 through the Forest Code Law, ‘Ley Forestal’ No7575. Carlos Manuel Rodríguez was critical in developing the idea for this program and in helping it pass in parliament; a famous Costa Rican newspaper referred to him as ‘the father of PES’
The program consists of giving money via the National Fund of Forest Financiation, ‘Fondo Nacional de Financiamiento Forestal’ (Fonafifo), to the owners of land that establish forest plantations, agroforestry systems and/or carry out natural regeneration, protection and management projects of forests. Law No7575 recognises ‘Environmental Services’ as:
- Mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions (fixation, reduction, sequestration, storage and absorption);
- protection of biodiversity for its conservation and sustainable use, scientific and pharmaceutical, research and genetic improvement, as well as for the protection of ecosystems and forms of life;
- protection of water for urban, rural or hydroelectric use and
- natural scenic beauty for tourism and scientific purposes.
This new law was accomplished thanks to legislation from the country’s Forest Code, such as Law No4465 from 1969, which created the possibility of offering incentives for reforestation; Law No7032 from 1986 hat created a new modality for incentives in which landowners can be given money in advance to finance reforestation that they can not afford otherwise, and Law No7174, which removed limitations to the previous law. Yet PES was still revolutionary since it was one of the only laws that ‘changed the traditional concept of a ‘subsidiary’ or ‘invective’ of previous legislation for the concept of ‘economic recognition’ for environmental Services.’
Passing a new law was not an easy task since Carlos Manuel Rodríguez had a hard time convincing both the Parliament to implement the policy through the Forest Code and the owners of the land because people believed deforestation wasn’t too big of an issue and that the land owners did not need money. In an interview, Carlos Manuel Rodríguez claimed that without his program, deforestation and reforestation in the country eventually will be possible to happen due to ‘other policies that were about to be implemented’, but at a much slower rate than they did with the PES.
Troubles continued when Parliament approved the new law since Rodríguez claimed the landowners refused to register for the PES program and accept paychecks since they thought it was a scam; however, with time, this became less of an issue as confidence in the program increased.
This policy helps Carlos Manuel Rodríguez to achieve his and his country’s goals of ending deforestation and re-forest Costa Rica as well as achieving the country’s national plan of decarbonisation, ‘Plan Nacional de Descarbonizacion’, which aims to be not only carbon-neutral but also carbon-negative by 2050. This is because it helps owners of forests maintain their forests by receiving government money in case they lack sufficient funds. Thus, by helping with reforestation efforts and planting more trees, they help reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and lessen the load of carbon emissions.
This policy can be tied to Carlos Manuel Rodríguez’s stake because of the strong connection to his country, given that he grew up in Costa Rica working at his grandfather’s coffee farm and mentioning on several occasions how deforestation, which he saw all the time, affected him as a child and during his youth, he even formed a watchdog organisation with his friends to fight dams and logging companies, We can see his motivations stemming from his childhood’s experiences, plus his experience as a lawyer and working in the area for several years, culminating in him developing such a revolutionary climate policy.
Marine and Coastal Project for the Ministry of Environment and Energy
The second policy in which Carlos Manuel Rodríguez played a leading role was creating the first-ever Marine and Coastal Program within the Ministry of Environment and Energy. During this time, Rodríguez served his second term as Minister of Environment and Energy (MINAE) (2002-2006). This program began as a project that aimed to establish a zone dedicated to the protection of biodiversity within Costa Rica’s maritime territories through the establishment of an Interdisciplinary Commission of a special economic zone, ‘Comisión Interdisciplinaria Marino Costera de la Zona Económica Exclusiva.’
The goal was to determine the viability of dedicating 25% of the area of Costa Rica’s exclusive economic zone in the ocean exclusively to ‘conservation, restoration, management and sustainable use of existing species and ecosystems, giving particular emphasis, among others, to sites of aggregation, reproduction, feeding and migration.’
A policy like this is crucial given that Costa Rica’s ocean territory is 11 times bigger than its land area, and its marine biodiversity represents around 4% of total global biodiversity. It is also significant because it was the first policy in Costa Rica that specifically targeted the conservation-restoration of the country’s marine biodiversity; all previous conservation efforts had neglected marine and coastal zones. A decade of overfishing has significantly impacted marine biodiversity, making it a priority for the government.
This policy helps achieve Carlos Manuel Rodríguez’s goal of protecting the biodiversity of his country because it is one of the country’s first steps in trying to conserve and restore damaged and deforested land. After this first instance, there will be an increased amount of regulation in this area; in fact, in 2012, the Ministry of the Environment and Energy (MINAE) annulled the decree that established this commission and replaced it with a National Maritime Commission.
To this extent, we can see this policy being successful in different aspects. First, it led to the protection of 12.5 million hectares as part of the country’s exclusive economic zone, and it also catalysed further legislation in this area. The success of this Commission did not go unnoticed since it led Carlos Manuel Rodrigue to win the Global Ocean Conservation Prize in 2005.
By creating this policy to protect the Marine Coastal zone, Carlos Manuel Rodríguez tackled Costa Rica’s challenge with coastal degradation, which is one of his principles as an environmental leader.
Global plan to protect tropical forests that were used for the UN’s Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation program (REDD & REDD+)
The third policy that will be analysed is the United Nations Plan for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries program (REDD) and REDD+, the ‘+’ stands for other forest activities that protect the climate. This program was based on the PES program, and Fonafifo, the Costa Rican National Fund of Forest Financiation Agency, was the operating unit after their excellent execution of the PES program.
This initiative aims at ‘helping mitigate climate change incentivising countries to reduce carbon emissions due to deforestation and forest degradation’. REDD+ in Costa Rica claims to benefit indigenous communities and owners of forests specifically. It primarily aids these communities through programs and projects that are financed mainly by the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC) and the National Fund of Forest Financing (FONAFIFO) via a national investment program set up in 2017 that was going to give around 1 billion US dollars to the REDD+ initiative in the country. Most of the budget will be allocated to strengthening programs that prevent and control land usage and forest fires.
For Costa Rica, the REDD+ program has established 6 policy strategies that it wants to implement in the country:
- Promotion of low-carbon production systems carbon emissions;
- strengthen prevention and control programs for land use change and fires;
- incentives for forest conservation and management sustainable;
- incentives for forest conservation and management sustainable;
- restoration of landscapes and forest ecosystems;
- participation of Indigenous peoples;
- enabling conditions: actions aimed at facilitating and monitoring REDD+ actions that are developed in the country and that allow it to attend to the technical-methodological provisions and safeguards applicable to REDD+ as well as supporting the participation of key actors;
For each of these 6 policies (referred to under the acronym PAM, which stands for Policies, Actions and Measures for the REDD+ strategy in Costa Rica), there will be a continuous analysis of their execution in Costa Rica, as well as a revision of their goals and indicators to evaluate whether further money investment is needed.
The REDD+ strategy helps implement activities and projects that will reduce the amount of greenhouse emissions and gas and stop dangerous human activities that have a negative effect on the country’s biodiversity. Also, the REDD+ strategy aims to boost involvement in the carbon market climate finance within the forest sector, and we are actively starting the process of implementing soil carbon accounting.’ By tackling this issue through climate finance, Carlos Manuel Rodríguez’s goals of not only protecting biodiversity but growing it can be achieved at a systemic level.
This policy demonstrates commitment to global environmental goals, reinforcing Costa Rica’s image as a pioneer in green policies while boosting the economy and addressing environmental challenges. Due to the high budget of this plan and its goals of using ‘climate finance’ to achieve its goals, it is clear there are more stakeholders who are more invested in the project and involved in its success.
IExRAIA Summer Research Program:
This article is an excerpt from a report about Carlos Manuel Rodriguez produced as part of an RAIA research program on climate leaders. For a full picture of Rodriguez’s climate leadership, read the full report. This project was fully financed by IE University’s IE School of Politics, Economics and Global Affairs.
Authors: Francisco Jeldres and Valeria Flores
Editor: Francia Morales
Project Lead: Francia Morales
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