Abstract
This paper attempts to elucidate the current challenges to the implementation of Costa Rica’s Payments for Environmental Services (PES) for agroforestry. By interviewing important stakeholders in program implementation, the study found differing visions and priorities for agroforestry development in the country. PES for agroforestry was viewed by the government as a tool to increase the accessibility of PES to smallholders, as well as to generate forest cover in agricultural lands. However, agroforestry experts from the academia and private NGOs critizised the scheme for its narrow focus on increasing tree cover and minimal regard on the quality of agroforestry farms. In theory the main goal of PES is to ensure the sustainable provision of environmental services, but it has been argued that increasing tree cover alone does not necessarily guarantee service provision. To improve the situation a quantification of the services provided is needed, in order to implement a performance-based payment scheme. This would not only ensure that the program meets its goal of sustaining the environmental services provided by forests but will also satisfy the various concerns of multiple stakeholders.
Keywords
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
ACG-SINAC. (2015). Area de Conservacion Guanacaste-Sistema Nacional de Areas de Conservacion. Retrieved October 29, 2015, from http://www.acguanacaste.ac.cr/acg/que-es-el-acg.
Batie, S. (2008). Wicked problems and applied economics. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 90(5), 1176–91. Retrieved November 11, 2015, from http://ajae.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8276.2008.01202.x.
Bennett, K., & Henninger, N. (2009). Payments for ecosystem services in Costa Rica and Forest Law No. 7575: Key Lessons for Legislators. Retrieved October 28, 2015, from http://www.agora-parl.org/sites/default/files/090422_e-parliament_forests_initiative_0.pdf.
Bennett, K. (2010). Additionality: The next step for ecosystem service markets. Duke Environmental Law and Policy Forum, 20(2), 417–439.
Bohlen, P. J., Lynch, S., Shabman, L., Clark, M., Shukla, S., & Swain, H. (2009). Paying for environmental services from agricultural lands: an example from the northern Everglades. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 7(1), 46–55.
Boody, T. C., Vondracek, B., & Andow, D. (2005). Multifunctional agriculture in the US. BioScience, 55, 27–48.
Brockett, C. D., & Gottfried, R. R. (2002). State policies and the preservation of forest cover: Lessons from contrasting public-policy regimes in Costa Rica. Latin American Research Review, 37, 7–40.
Calvo-Alvarado, J., McLennan, B., Sánchez-Azofeifa, A., & Garvin, T. (2009). Deforestation and forest restoration in Guanacaste, Costa Rica: Putting conservation policies in context. Forest Ecology and Management, 258, 931–940. Retrived September 15, 2015, from http://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2008.10.035.
Castro-Salazar, R., & Arias-Murillo, G. (1998). Costa Rica: Toward the sustainability of its forest resources (Technical report). San Jose, Costa Rica: Fondo Nacional de Financiamiento Forestal.
Clark, W. (2006). Sustainability science: A room of its own. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States of America (PNAS), 104, 1737–1738.
Clay, J. (2004). World agriculture and the environment: A commodity -by-commodity guide to impacts and practices. Washington, DC: Island Press.
Fagan, M. E., DeFries, R. S., Sesnie, S. E., Arroyo, J. P., Walker, W., & Soto, C., et al. (2013). Land cover dynamics following a deforestation ban in northern Costa Rica. Environmental Research Letters, 8, 034017. Retrieved September 15, 2015, from http://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/034017.
FONAFIFO. (2013). The fund for sustainable biodiversity: Investing today for a better future. In A. Vilma Obando, G. Jesus Ugalde, A. Herrera V (Eds.) (1st ed.).
FONAFIFO. (2015). Environmental Services Payment (PSA) Program. Retrieved August 11, 2015, from http://www.fonafifo.go.cr/home/psa_eng/index.html.
Garrity, D. P. (2004). Agroforestry and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Agroforestry Systems, 61(1–3), 5–17.
Horn, R. E., & Weber, R. P. (2007). New tools for resolving wicked problems: Mess mapping and resolution mapping processes. Watertown, MA: Strategy Kinetics L.L.C.
Jose, Shibu. (2009). Agroforestry for ecosystem services and environmental benefits: An overview. Agroforestry Systems, 76(1), 1–10.
Karousakis, K. (2007). Incentives to reduce GHG emissions from deforestation: Lessons learned from Costa Rica and Mexico. Retrieved September 15, 2015, from http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/55/54/38523758.pdf\nwww.oecd.org/env/cc/aixg.
Kishor, N., & Constantino, L. (1993). Forest management and competing land uses: An economic analysis for Costa Rica. Laten Dissemination Note no. 7. Washington, D.C.: World Bank. Retrieved September 14, 2015, from http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2000/01/06/000094946_99122006050427/Rendered/PDF/multi_page.pdf.
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. (2005). Ecosystems and human well-being: Biodiversity synthesis. Washington, D.C.: World Resources Institute.
Murillo, R., Kilian, B., & Castro, R. (2012). Leveraging and sustainability of PES (p. 267). Ecosystem Services from Agriculture and Agroforestry: Measurement and Payment.
Nair, V. D., & Graetz, D. A. (2004). Agroforestry as an approach to minimizing nutrient loss from heavily fertilized soils: The Florida experience. Agroforestry Systems, 61(1–3), 269–279.
Nair, P. R., Kumar, B. M., & Nair, V. D. (2009). Agroforestry as a strategy for carbon sequestration. Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science, 172(1), 10–23.
Pagiola, S., Arcenas, A., & Platais, G. (2005). Can payments for environmental services help reduce poverty? An exploration of the issues and the evidence to date from Latin America. World Development, 33(2), 237–253. Retrieved Sepetmber 16, 2015 from http://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2004.07.011.
Pagiola, S. (2006). Payments for environmental services in Costa Rica. Retrieved August 30, 2015, from https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/2010/1/MPRA_paper_2010.pdf.
Pfaff, A., Robalino, J. A., & Sanchez-Azofeifa, G. A. (2008). Payments for environmental services: empirical analysis for Costa Rica. Duke University, Durham, NC, USA: Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy.
Porras, I., & Neves, N. (2006). Costa Rica National PES Programme. In Case Study. London: Watershed Markets. Retrieved September 14, 2015, from http://www.watershedmarkets.org/casestudies/Costa_Rica_National_PES_eng.html.
Rittel, H., & Webber, M. (1973). Dilemmas in a general theory of planning. Elsevier Policy Sciences, 4, 155–169.
Sánchez-Azofeifa, G. A., Pfaff, A., Robalino, J. A., & Boomhower, J. P. (2007). Costa Rica’s payment for environmental services program: intention, implementation, and impact. Conservation Biology, 21(5), 1165–1173.
Sills, E., Hartshorn, G., Ferraro, P., & Spergel, B. (2005). Evaluation of the World Bank-GEF Ecomarkets Project in Costa Rica. Panel Evaluation Report, North Carolina University, United states and the World Bank, Washington, DC. Retrieved October 29, 2015, from http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwcec/docs/doc%20updates/NCSU_Blue_Ribbon_Panel_Final.pdf.
Swinton, M., Lupi, F., Robertson, G. P., & Landis, D. A. (2006). Ecosystem services from agriculture: Looking beyond the usual suspects. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 88, 1160–1166.
Wunder, S. (2005). Payments for environmental services: Some nuts and bolts. CIFOR Occasional Paper, 42(24), 1–14.
Wunder, S. (2008a). Payments for environmental services and the poor: Concepts and preliminary evidence. Environment and Development Economics, 13:279–297.
Wunder, S. (2008b). Necessary conditions for ecosystem service. In Economics and conservation in the tropics : A strategic dialogue (pp. 1–10).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Allasiw, D. et al. (2016). Field Survey Key Informant Interviews in Sustainability Science: Costa Rica’s PES Policy of Changing Focus from Quantity to Quality. In: Esteban, M., Akiyama, T., Chen, C., Ikeda, I., Mino, T. (eds) Sustainability Science: Field Methods and Exercises. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32930-7_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32930-7_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-32929-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-32930-7
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)