REDD+ Readiness Preparation Proposal (Costa Rica)

Initiative

Summary

Costa Rica has been a Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) participant since July 2008. In 2009, the FCPF disbursed a US$200,000 readiness grant to Costa Rica to prepare its Readiness Preparation Proposal (R-PP). The FCPF approved the R-PP in 2010 (FCPF 2010) authorizing a further grant of US$3.4m, later increased to US$3.6m including US$200,000 to develop a grievance redress mechanism.

At the time of writing (December 2013) the current version of the R-PP is dated April 2011. The R-PP contains a total of eight strategic options for REDD+, both for: (i) avoided deforestation and carbon enhancement; and (ii) strengthening national technical capacities and forest governance. The R-PP also sets out the country's plans around stakeholder participation, consultation and safeguards.

The avoided deforestation and carbon enhancement strategies are:
(i) Maintain the existing Payments for Ecosystem Services Programme (PPSA) coverage in the long term;
(ii) Incorporate new areas into PPSA;
(iii) Integrate carbon capture into National Parks and Biological Reserves;
(iv) Increase the demand for and supply of sustainable wood (certified, plantations, sustainable forest management).

The capacity building and forest governance strategies are:
(v) Improve the management of the National Conservation Areas System (SINAC) in controlling illegal logging and forest fires;
(vi) Improve the oversight role of the College of Agricultural Engineers (CIAgro);
(vii) Find financing sources to implement the REDD+ strategy; and
(viii) Improve the land cadastre and registry system, particularly for Indigenous Territories.
Also included in this component are: (i) establishing a National Registry for Environmental Service Rights; and (ii) establishing of a Fraud Control Unit to prevent fraudulent transactions of environmental service rights and regulate transactions of environmental service rights in the local environmental services market.

Costa Rica subsequently developed the planned avoided deforestation and carbon enhancement into an Emissions Reduction (ER) Programme. This was submitted to the FCPF's Carbon Fund in February 2013 and approved by the Carbon Fund in September 2013. The R-PP remains valid and provides the framework for the REDD+ process in general.