Costa Rica is a frontrunner when it comes to nature conservation but finding the cash to keep its status isn’t easy. Conservationists, lawmakers and NGOs are searching for solutions.
Project goal: Securing financing to continue protecting Costa Rica’s biodiversity
Project partner: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), supported by the International Climate Initiative (IKI)
Project budget: BIOFIN’s total budget is US$28 million (26,400,000 euros). Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety contributes 17,300,000 euros (US$18,340,000)
Biodiversity: Costa Rica is a biodiversity hotspot. Around 87,000 species – an estimated 6 percent of all known species – live there, including howler monkeys, pumas and toucans.
The protected rainforest of Osa peninsula in southwestern Costa Rica is one of the most biodiverse regions on earth in one of the most biodiverse countries on earth. Home to 500 tree species, nearly 400 kinds of birds and countless monkeys, pumas and reptiles, conservationists there work hard to protect the country’s wealth of flora and fauna.
Costa Rica is a role model when it comes to conservation. Since the 1990s, the government has introduced a number of financing schemes, which have helped to reverse forest loss and protect the species residing there. The country also has around 160 protected areas, making up over 13 percent of the national territory. But the projects have hit their financial limits and Costa Rica’s government and BIOFIN, a financing scheme for conservation projects run by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), are searching for ways to ensure conservation efforts continue.
A film by Manuel Özcerkes
