INTERNATIONAL AND COSTA RICAN FORESTRY ISSUES

 
 
 
 
Costa Rica's Forestry Law
 
 
In 1996 the Costa Rican government promulgated a new forestry law. How this law will function remains unclear as of this writing (late 1997), in part because the new law revamped the administrative structure, decentralizing decisions to seven large conservation regions (the SINAC system). Within each region, farmers with small patches of forest now can log them with only the approval of local, municipal committees on which small farmers and local conservation organizations supposedly sit, along with local
governmental and economic interests. Forest patches smaller than two hectares are free of most regulation. Since to some extent this legislation shapes what TFI does on its lands as well as what TFI's neighbors can do, I will some of its provisions that affect lands that overall are considered agricultural.

1. Protected areas, where normally no alternations of nature can be made, include riparian zones 15 meters from streams on flat terrain, 50 m otherwise. Protected is a 100 m radius of springs. In areas where aquifers recharge the limits are still to be set by gov't. technicians.

 
2. Burning in or near forests requires permits.
 
3. Logs not smaller than 29 cm at the small end will be taxed 3% of their value at the sawmill.
 
4. On private lands classified as terrenos de uso agropecuario (agricultural use), trees can be harvested with the authorization of a local Consejo Regional Ambiente (CRA). The CRAs are new regional entities that are to include local representatives of government, private sector, environmental organizations, pequenos productores forestales, and others. While the law states that the CRAs will approve forest management plans, it also says that those plans must meet criteria laid down by the law, which include plans being drawn up by two certified forest science professionals. No more than 5 trees per hectare can be harvested each year on each farm.
 
5. The law creates certificados para la conservacion del bosques (CCBs). Criteria for who gets these and how much they are worth will be set by MINAE, the Environmental Minstry. The advantages the certificates confer are tax benefits, collateral on loans, and the government's committment to remove squatters from that land. Exencion (exemption) is the word used in connection with taxes ( impuestos ). It seems as if untouched forest ( tierras incultas ) are exempt from tax as are bienes inmuebles (unmovable goods) on reforested land. To qualify for such a certificate, no harvesting for lumber can have occurred in the previous 2 years nor under the life of the certificate, a minumum of 20 years.
 
6. The law continues the "certificados de abono forestal" launched in 1969. During the next 10 years, according to the new law, CAFs are to be applied to proyectos pequenos de reforestacion ejecutados por miembros de organizaciones forestales productivas (small reforestation projects carried out by productive forestry organizations). These certificates are administered by the Administracion Forestal del Estado and intended to be as a source of cheap credit for those undertaking reforestation activities.
 
7. There also is a Fondo Forestal (forestry fund) regulated by that same agency which financially aids tree nurseries (viveros), soil conservation, promotion of agroforestry, as well as reforestation of barren land. Again, small producers are supposedly targeted.
 
Bud Kenworthy , TFI
 

 

TFI and Global Climate Change
 
 
At the Osaka (Japan) conference on global climate change, the U.S. government advanced a concept developed within the U.S. of trading pollution rights. Within this concept, Costa Rica has begun selling carbon bonds to foreign governments as a way to subsidize its forests. Norway bought $2 million in
bonds in one early application of this joint implementation approach to limiting the greenhouse gases that fuel global climate change.
 
Norway taxes its offshore oil fields for the carbon dioxide they contribute to the atmosphere, then transfers that money to Costa Rica to maintain its forests. Costa Rica uses those funds to pay for forest-promoting subsidies in its conservation policies. The end result is that driving becomes a bit more expensive in Europe while reforestation policy is funded in Costa Rica.
 
While scientists agree that forests sequester (lock up) carbon, there is as yet no consensus on how to measure this, which makes pricing these bonds difficult. There also is the possibility of these bonds acquiring a life of their own, with sales and resales that have nothing to do with the environment.
 
Behind all such experiments lies the general problem of affixing value to the multiple benefits nature provides. Were nature's contributions entered into the GNP, they would exceed those of all human contrivances. Biodiversity is just one benefit of such apparent non-use. Others are water storage, climate regulation, recreation, and the "free goods" of hunting, fishing and collecting that matter so much to the two billion peasant and indigenous peoples in the world.
 
Some would argue that putting a price on the benefits of a forest is a capitulation to a worldview that ought to be challenged: the worldview that says that everything of value must have a price. Others say that pricing is the only way to make overlooked benefits visible to decision makers. In this vein the World Bank has begun calculating the natural capital of countries.
 
TFI is engaged in adding value to the land it manages and we hope to demonstrate this through documentable, quantifiable changes in biodiversity. Carbon sequestration and erosion control are additional benefits of our reforestation effort that we talk less about -- probably because we despair of measuring it. But these are important "payoffs" of our project.
 
Bud Kenworthy, TFI