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Forest now accounts for 52% of the country’s land surface area, up from 26% in 1983.
Massive reforestation is possible and Costa Rica is an inspiring example of how to do it
Following decades of deforestation, Costa Rica has doubled its forest cover in the last 30 years. Over half of the country’s land surface is now covered with trees, creating a huge carbon sink and a big draw for tourists. Forest now accounts for 52% of the country’s land surface area, up from 26% in 1983.
Years of unchecked logging laid waste to two-thirds of Costa Rica’s tree canopy. This left its tropical rainforests facing an uncertain future. But the trees have returned and the resurrected forests support a thriving eco-tourism industry. Source: Unsplash/RubenRamirez
How did Costa Rica manage to double its forest cover in under 30 years?
In the early 1980s, Costa Rica began to realise the potential of its rich ecosystems and set about safeguarding them, with policymakers restricting the number of logging permits and creating a national forestry commission to police forest activity.
Costa Rica is taking huge proactive steps to become the first country in the world to become fully carbon-neutral by 2050.
The tiny nation is already well on the way. Currently 98% of its energy is produced using renewable sources, and by 2040, Costa Rica plans to reduce the number of vehicles on its roads by 50%.
The agriculture and garbage sectors are following suit, employing new waste treatment plants, and recycling and composting systems to control emissions from landfills.
The success of Costa Rica is due to 3 factors:
Ethics
Environmentalism
Effective public policies.
A trio of factors that many governments would be wise to adopt as the central axis of all planning.
As Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado has rightly said: caring for the environment is “the great task of our generation”.
Towards the middle of the 20th century, indigenous woodland – predominantly tropical rainforest – covered all but a quarter of the country. But then the loggers arrived. The forests were cleared as crews of lumberjacks freely converted Costa Rica’s natural resources into profits. Source: Unsplash/IsabellaJusková Halting deforestation is essential to avoiding the worst effects of global climate change. By the early 1980s, the destruction of two-thirds of the forests had ravaged the habitats of indigenous creatures such as the golden toad and poison dart frog. Source: Unsplash/LisaKessler What caused Costa Rica’s dramatic reversal of fortune? The simple answer is that Costa Rica began to realise the potential of its rich ecosystems and set about safeguarding them. Policy-makers restricted the number of logging permits and created a national forestry commission to police forest activity. Source: Unsplash/OvidiuCreanga In 1996, a system of payments for environmental services was introduced to help reduce poverty, especially in poor rural areas. The National Forestry Fund was established in recognition that a healthy rainforest provides numerous benefits, which include removing and storing CO2 from the atmosphere, and water filtration. The fund offered landowners per-acre financial incentives to conserve their land and prevent it degrading, which led to improved land management and reforestation. Source: Unsplash/KristianaPinne Tropical rainforests harbour unknown quantities of natural resources that could be used to develop pharmaceuticals and natural medicines. Both individuals and entire communities can benefit from the fund, which has helped create 18,000 jobs and indirectly supports a further 30,000. It is financed from several sources, including foreign investment and loans, as well as internal revenues from fossil fuel taxation. Source: Unsplash/SamuelCharron Safeguarding natural resources has become a priority for policy-makers who have extended protection to include secondary rainforests, which regrow naturally after being cleared or degraded. More than half of Costa Rica’s tree canopy is now secondary rainforest.
A clear correlation exists between Costa Rica’s investment in regenerating its rainforests and the country’s economic success. Source: Unsplash/JulianaBarquero Trees provide a natural means of curbing global warming and more needs to be done to prevent deforestation around the globe. Costa Rica’s experience could provide a model of how to reverse declining canopy cover for other nations to follow. Source: Unsplash/IsabellaJusková
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