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Good practice

Costa Rica Payments for Environmental Services (PSA / FONAFIFO)

Costa Rica · San José · See the Costa Rica profile

Costa Rica's national PES, created by the 1996 Forest Law, has paid landowners US$565M to conserve 1.15M+ hectares for carbon, water, biodiversity and scenic services, funded by a fuel tax.

US$565M
Cumulative payments to landowners
1.15M+ ha
Forest area conserved
Costa Rica Payments for Environmental Services (PSA / FONAFIFO)

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
FONAFIFO (Fondo Nacional de Financiamiento Forestal)
Keywords
National payments for ecosystem services, Tropical forest

Context

Costa Rica's Pago por Servicios Ambientales (PSA), created by the 1996 Forest Law (7575) and administered by FONAFIFO, is the world's reference national PES. Landowners are paid for four services — greenhouse-gas mitigation, hydrological services, biodiversity conservation and scenic beauty — financed largely by a fossil-fuel tax.

Results

Over its lifetime the programme has channelled about US$565 million and protected more than 1.15 million hectares of forest, and is widely credited as part of Costa Rica's shift from high deforestation to net reforestation.

Implementation

Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

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