At 57, García has worked on his seven-hectare plot, El Jícaro, in the Sarapiquí region, northeast Costa Rica, for 36 years. In his hands he has gone from being a bare pasture for cattle to a densely wooded wildlife refuge, where the aroma of vanilla floats in the air and hummingbirds buzz among tropical fruit trees.
Garcia has restored the forest, home to hundreds of species, from sloths to strawberry poison dart frogs, while growing farm produce from pepper vines to organic pineapple.
Garcia is one of many Costa Ricans who have fueled a massive conservation movement in the small Central American country. While most of the world is only realizing the importance of trees in the fight against Climate emergency, Costa Rica is years ahead.
“It’s remarkable,” Stewart Maginnis, global director of the nature-based solutions group at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), tells CNN. “In the 1970s and 1980s, Costa Rica had one of the highest deforestation rates in Latin America, but managed to change that in a relatively short period of time.”
When Costa Rica lost its trees.
Other countries have made ambitious commitments, but “if restoration only replaces ongoing deforestation losses, then it may be better than nothing, but it’s a bit of a band-aid,” says Maginnis.
The reason for the money
Costa Rica’s success is underlined by the economy. It paired its ban on deforestation with the introduction of PSA, which pays farmers to protect watersheds, conserve biodiversity, or capture carbon dioxide.
“We have learned that the pocket is the fastest way to get to the heart,” says Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, Costa Rica’s Minister of Environment and Energy, adding that people are more likely to care for nature if they provide an income.
“There were no paved roads or access to clean water. It was difficult because you couldn’t live in the forest at the time,” he tells CNN.
Working with neighboring families, he they cleaned the trees and created open pastures divided by fences, where the cattle now graze on the dusty grass.
But in the middle of his farm, Flores decided to preserve a five-hectare bag of original forest. Despite occupying a small area, it is a dense and tangled jungle: it enters and it is difficult to believe that there is agricultural land everywhere.
The scheme allows farmers to generate additional income by selective harvesting of wood from reforested areas. Flores seeks guidance from Fundecor, a sustainable forestry NGO, to make sure he only cuts down trees that are not vital to the ecosystem.
Wood sales have helped pay for her oldest daughter’s college studies in sustainable tourism. “I am proud when I walk through the woods, not just for myself but for my whole family,” he says. “When she is no longer here, I know my children will continue to care for her.”
Ecological culture, ecotourism area
According to Maginnis, Costa Ricans’ deep respect for nature has played a vital role in the success of the country’s reforestation. Their culture is summarized in the national motto, “pura vida”, which is used as a greeting, farewell and in many other social contexts.
Although its direct translation is “pure life”, “pure life” means much more than that: both gratitude and peace with oneself and the environment that surrounds it.
This respect is reinforced by the country’s booming ecotourism sector, says Patricia Madrigal-Cordero, a former deputy environment minister.
“People come to see the mountains, the nature, the forests and when a monkey or a sloth stuns them, the communities realize what they have here and realize that they should take care of it,” he tells CNN.
“People in Costa Rica receive a lot of money because of tourism and that changes the incentives for land use,” says Juan Robalino, an expert in environmental economics at the University of Costa Rica.
Without tourists, communities put less effort into preserving the environment, says Robalino. This creates a downward spiral: With less income, conservation funds decrease, leading to less ecotourism.
A model country?
But these countries lack Costa Rica’s long history of coherence and coherence of environmental policy, says Maginnis.
It is this combination of political will, environmental passion and tourism that has allowed the country to become a pioneer in reforestation.
Rodríguez, the country’s environment minister, says that while Costa Rica’s basic strategy could be applied anywhere, there must also be “principles and values.” These include good governance, strong democracy, respect for human rights and a strong educational system, he says.
The secret of Costa Rica’s success is its people, adds Madrigal-Cordero. “We have created peace, pure life,” she says. “Nature is in our DNA.”
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