National Forestry Union (Costa Rica)

Summary

The National Forestry Union represents forest smallholders involved in agro-forestry. It is a second level organisation with five regional representations (in Brunca, Huetar, Caribe, Pacífico Central and Chorotega) and 230 member organisations. In total it represents approximately 35,000 producers, active mainly in conservation, coffee and agriculture.

UNAFOR is a product of the REDD+ process. It was established in 2011 to meet the need for a platform to represent forest smallholders in consultations on REDD+ and in the design of the REDD+ mechanism. FONAFIFO coordinated the process, with funding from the GIZ-funded REDD/CCAD programme and supported by the Coordinating Association of Indigenous and Community Agroforestry in Central America (ACICOFOC). Together they organised a series of five regional workshops, followed by a national workshop.

UNAFOR includes the majority of agro-forestry organisations in Costa Rica, but not all. A series of workshops was held in 2013 to select the representative for the "civil society or owners of degraded land" sector to be part of the REDD+ Executive Committee. UNAFOR has been lobbying for the creation of a Peasant Payment for Ecosystem Services (PSA Campesina) that would recognise the value of agro-forestry in terms of carbon sequestration and the reduction in emissions.

UNAFOR is one of three organisations representing the forestry sector. The other two are: (i) the Costa Rican chamber of Forestry (CCF), which represents the forestry industry; and (ii) the National Forestry Office (ONF), which was established by law to provide a channel for the forestry sector to feed into policy.