By Leland Baxter-Neal
Costa Rica has turned $15 million in foreign debt into $26 million for local conservation, thanks to a “Nature-for-Debt” swap with the United States, a top Environment Ministry official told The Beach Times this week. The agreement is being called the largest of its kind ever signed.
Under the arrangement, which is still being fine-tuned and involves the United States, Costa Rica and the international environmental organizations Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy, Costa Rica will divert payments on more than $12.6 million in debt it owes the United States into a trust fund for environmental projects.
“The Costa Rican government is going to begin to deposit this money into a trust in payments of about $1.5 million a year,” explained Rubén Muñoz, the head of the Ministry of the Environment’s (MINAE) negotiating team.
The agreement should be signed sometime in September, and payments are expected to begin next year. Payments to the trust — including interest — will have totaled around $26 million by the time they are completed in 2024, added Mr Muñoz.
Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy will also contribute an additional $2.6 million to the fund, which will be used to fund environmental conservation in Costa Rica, said Manuel Ramírez, director of Conservation International.
The money will be used to fund conservation projects in five priority areas: the Southern Zone’s biodiversity hot spot, the Osa Peninsula; Guanacaste’s volcanic Rincón de la Vieja National Park, the La Amistad Biosphere Reserve, the Nicoya Peninsula, Tortuguero National Park and the La Maquenque Wildlife Refuge, Mr Muñoz said.
However, according to US regulations, neither the US or Costa Rican government, nor the two NGOs involved can access the funding, he emphasized, “The projects are going to be developed by local non-governmental organizations and the academia – Costa Rican universities,” Mr Muñoz said. “All the projects have to be about recuperation of tropical forests.”
Mr Ramírez, of Conservation International, explained that a small fund of no more than $3 million would also be created within the trust for purchasing property in three of the six priority regions.
The fund is to be administered by a supervisory committee made up of the Costa Rican and US governments and the two NGOs. The committee will be in charge of evaluating proposals from environmental groups requesting financing from the fund, and awarding the money.
The accord, which president Oscar Arias pushed for during a visit with US president George Bush in December of 2006, follows the structure of a “Debt-for-Nature” exchange, a debt forgiveness agreement that has allowed countries throughout the world to redirect foreign debt to conservation programs.
The United States has signed at least 10 such agreements for a total of $125 million in forest conservation funds for the next 10-25 years since passing the Tropical Forest Protection Act (TFPA) in 1998, which authorizes the exchanges.
GREEN WINDFALL: The United States has agreed to forgive $15 million in Costa Rican debt as part of a Debt-for-Nature swap that will produce $26 million for conservation work in Costa Rica, benefiting areas such as the Tortuguero National Park. (Photo Courtesy Global Vision International)
Panama, Paraguay, El Salvador and Belize all have Debt-for-Nature agreements with the United States, and last year Guatemala signed what was then touted as the largest Debt-for-Nature swap under the TFPA ever signed, for a total of $24 million, according to a statement by the US State Department. Costa Rica’s accord, if signed by the Sept 26 deadline as is, will be larger than Guatemala’s by $2 million.
Costa Rica was also one of the first countries to ever sign a Debt-for-Nature exchange, which it did in 1988, again with the involvement of both Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy. It has also signed similar swaps with Spain, Canada and the Netherlands.
“One of the great strengths Costa Rica has is that we have developed a lot of experience with trust funds, which gives us an advantage over the rest of Central America,” Mr Muñoz said.
“I believe that Costa Rica has demonstrated to the international community that these types of negotiations are very successful,” said Carlos Manuel Rodríguez...
...Regional Vice President of Conservation International and former Environment Minister under President Abel Pacheco (2002-2006).
“Costa Rica is a successful country, however 40 per cent of the national parks have a low level of management and basically have no resources. The debt swap is a very important help,” he added.
The money will not, however, be available for one major issue in conservation in Costa Rica: funding for park guards for Costa Rica’s national parks.
Some 180 park guards could lose their jobs if Costa Rica’s Supreme Court upholds a suit challenging funding for contracting MINAE personnel that comes from private, non-profit organizations.
Since the Costa Rican government is taking part in the negotiations, and is a representative on the committee awarding the trust fund money, it is ineligible to receive any.
“It will not pay for recurring government costs, equipment or government salaries,” said Director Ramírez. “It will go to NGOs to develop their projects, particularly in the buffer zones around the selected areas.”
According to MINAE’s Muñoz, the projects should focus on forest protection as well as reforestation, but can also include aquifers, “social development” and sustainable forest management.
Mr Ramírez added that other projects such as “environmental education, sustainable agriculture, alternative markets and eco-tourism,” might also be considered.
Ecotourism and Nature 
