Payment for Environmental Services
Forests offer a wide range of services beyond the well-known carbon sequestration highlighted by the Kyoto Protocol in the fight against climate change.
Forest conservation and management offer numerous vital services to humans, such as:
- the balance of the water cycle,
- the protection and conservation of biodiversity,
- the scenic beauty,
- the supply of products and raw materials,
- soil stabilization and erosion control,
- the mitigation of extreme events (cloudbursts, floods, desertification, increase and decrease in temperatures)
- the basis for studies and research especially in the biological and pharmaceutical fields,
- carbon sequestration and the fight against climate change,
- human welfare services: cultural, spiritual, recreational and educational.
It is a firm belief that this is by far the best tool that allows adequate protection of forests and at the same time brings benefits to the populations that live there. FpS has integrated conservation projects with projects aimed at local populations for ecologically sustainable development with special attention to youth and women, education and health, thanks to partnerships with other NGOs.
Costa Rica was the first country to undertake projects related to payments for environmental services rendered by forests. Under the Ecomarkets project, landowners in rural areas receive a payment (provided for by the Costa Rican law on forestry) in exchange for protecting the forest. Initially, these payments were financed through a tax on gasoline. Later, the beneficiaries were of the aquifer augmentation function such as water supply companies. Tourism industry operators will also contribute to the payments, as they benefit from the scenic beauty of the intact forest.
This market is regulated by a financial intermediary created specifically FONAFIFO (National Forest Financing Fund) of the Ministry of the Environment of Costa Rica, a trust fund controlled by some interested ministries and the National Bank of Costa Rica, financed by the World Bank, the GEF, the German government through the KfW Bank and international financiers. Payments for environmental services generate CSA (Environmental Payment Certificates) of which GEV -Foreste per Sempre ODV is the international representative.
The awareness of the benefits that all humanity derives from the protection of forests has pushed FpS to repeat the Costa Rican experience in other countries, first of all Madagascar which has led to an excellent collaboration with the National Directorate of Forests and with the various Regional Directorates of the Ministry of the Environment, Water and Forests.
The international recognition by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature – UN) by the Ecosystems and Livelihoods Adaptation Network (ELAN) of the validity of payments for environmental services applied to the Forests for Ever ODV projects (in this case in Madagascar) .
Application of PSA in the forests of the Indigenous Reserves of Cabecar in Talamanca and Salitre in Puntarenas
