COP26: Here's Why Costa Rica Leads Environmental Response
As world leaders turn to address their concerns and respond with the environment, Costa Rica President Carlos Alvarado Quesada shines the most as the tropical country he leads showed off amazing credentials during the COP26 this year.
President Alvarado Quesada showed how Costa Rica pays respect to the environment, as he highlighted several achievements their country achieved, prompting several personalities such as Prince William, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and Jeff Bezos wanting to speak with the country's president, The Guardian reported.
Costa Rican officials are routinely found in international leadership positions when it comes to environmental response from Christiana Figueres, who became the head of the UN Climate Convention and Paris Agreement in 2015; to Carlos Manuel Rodríguez who became the chief executive of the Global Environment Facility.
Costa Rica Environmental Triumphs
In the recent COP26, world leaders made stopping deforestation their commitment. However, Costa Rica is the only tropical country that successfully halted and reversed deforestation.
According to an organization known as Good News Network, Costa Rica utilized the program called Payment for Environmental Service (PES), a strategy that values the country's forest.
Under this program, Costa Rica's forest was treated as a utility company, wherein their government is paying for the service and processes provided by the forest.
In this method, farmers who can chop down trees to plant crops will be paid to keep the trees intact.
Every year, the Costa Rican Forest Fund collects $33 million which is used to make sure that the forests sitting on privately owned lands are taken care of. Furthermore, $500 million was also paid to landowners and farmers over the years so that 2.4 million acres of rainforests are taken care of, and incentivize seven million new trees.
PES was able to overturn the deforestation, and in 2020, 60 percent of Costa Rica is forested once again.
In October, Costa Rica was among the winners of the Earth shot prize for PES, as the policy also led to an ecotourism boom.
Despite winning against deforestation, President Alvarado Quesada does not want to end his term by only battling deforestation, contending that their country is "green - but not blue" enough. He then announced in COP26 that his country will be involved in a "vast new marine-protected" area.
Costa Rica President Warns COP26 Attendees About Making Them a 'Blue Print' in Battling Deforestation
In the recent COP26, world leaders agreed that halting deforestation will be a part of the multi-million dollar package to tackle human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.
Presidents from Brazil, China, and the U.S. pledged to commit to COP26 held in Glasgow to protect vast areas, such as forests from the eastern Siberian taiga to those located in the Congo Basin.
However, the Costa Rican president said that his country's example in battling deforestation should not be taken as a model for other countries to follow.
"The Costa Rican example ought not to be taken literally. Take whatever is good that we have, but also adapt it locally," President Carlos Alvarado Quesada said in the event.
Aside from tackling deforestation, world leaders from more than 120 countries also committed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions during the event.
This article is owned By Latin Post.
Written By: Joshua Summers
WATCH: Reclaiming the Forests of Costa Rica - From Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
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