Costa Rican College of Agricultural Engineers

Summary

The Costa Rican College of Agricultural Engineers is the public, non-State body that organises, accredits and regulates registered forestry engineers (regentes forestales), agricultural engineers and environmental managers in Costa Rica. It was established in 1941 but is currently regulated by Law 7221 of 1991 as modified by MAG-MIRENEM Decree 22688 of 1993. Art. 21 of the 1996 Forestry Law gave CIAgro responsibilty for regulating regentes forestales, but did not establish a funding stream to do so. At the time of writing (November 2013) it has approximately 5,500 members (including roughly 400 regentes forestales).

Forest management plans can be prepared by a regular forestry engineer. However to make any use of a forest (including submitting it for the Payment for Ecosystem Services Programme (PPSA)) they must be approved by a regente forestal and registered with CIAgro. CIAgro sets minimum professional fees for regentes forestales and charges a fee to register the forest management plan, which will include monitoring by the regente forestal. The 1996 Forestry Law gives regentes forestales delegated public authority (fé pública) to certify compliance with the management plan. CIAGro conducts field visits to carry out routine inspections as well as to verify any complaints made against a regente forestal. CIAgro will continue to have the same role in REDD+ as in PPSA.

Under the FCPF grant, CIAgro will receive funds to strengthen its ability to systematise the information it collects so that it can feed into the monitoring component of the REDD+ programme.