Costa Rica's forests

About 75 percent of Costa Rica was forest in 1950. Cattle ranching and land laws that rewarded clearing cut it to about 21 percent by 1987, one of the fastest losses in the world.

Earlier laws gave tax breaks and certificates for reforestation. Then Forest Law 7575 in 1996 banned turning forest into other land uses and set up FONAFIFO, the National Forest Financing Fund.

From 1997 FONAFIFO has paid landholders for four services forests provide: storing carbon, protecting water, protecting biodiversity and natural beauty. Part of a fuel tax funds it, along with water fees, international partners and carbon payments.

Farmers, families, Indigenous communities and local associations signed more than 18,000 contracts. Forest cover rose to 51 percent by 2005 and 52.4 percent in the 2013 national forest inventory.

• A law banning conversion of forest to other uses (Forest Law 7575, 1996)
• Payments to landholders for protecting forest, regrowing it and planting trees
• Funding from a share of the fuel tax, water fees and carbon finance
• Contracts open to small landholders and Indigenous territories
• A large network of protected areas

Costa Rican farmers, families, Indigenous communities and local associations who signed forest contracts, with FONAFIFO, the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE) and the national conservation system.

Forest cover numbers depend on the definition used. The World Bank says forests fell as low as about 40 percent in 1987 and are close to 60 percent now; FAO data give about 59 percent.

Researchers found deforestation from 1997 to 2000 was not much lower where payments went, and credit earlier conservation policies too. Falling beef prices and tourism also played a part.

• Pay people for what a forest gives everyone: clean water, carbon and wildlife.
• A stable source of money, like a fuel tax share, keeps a programme going for decades.
• Strong rules against clearing plus rewards for keeping forest work better together.