12 Costa Rica
Contents
1. however led to the development of a highly technified and regulated SFM even to such an extent that the resulting high planning and administrative costs combined with the reduced harvesting levels did not make SFM an attractive land use proposition for many private forest owners in particular where PES could be received for forest protection without much investment Photo 12 4 Innovative financing mechanisms and the political will to set up adequate legal administrative and monitoring systems will be necessary if SFM is to fulfil its potential contribution to Costa Rican s economic development without further degrading the forests capacity to provide ecosystem services References Alfaro T 2006 Estudio de condiciones para segundas cosechas en bosques naturales en la zona Norte de Costa Rica Tesis Mag Sc CATIE Turrialba Costa Rica 134 pp Barrantes A amp Salazar G 2006 Uso y aportes de la madera en Costa Rica Estad sticas 2005 Oficina Nacional Forestal ONF San Jos Costa Rica 28 pp Camacho M 8 Finegan B 1997 Efectos del aprovechamiento forestal y del tratamiento silvicultural en un bosque h medo del noreste de Costa rica el crecimiento diam trico con nfasis en el rodal comercial CATIE Turrialba Costa Rica Serie t cnica informe t cnico no 295 Colecci n Manejo Diversificado de Bosques Naturales no 11 38 pp Camino R de Segura O Arias L G amp P rez 2000 Costa Rica Forest strat2. sequestration and maintenance of biodiversity Interestingly between 1992 and 1996 the supply of timber from natural forests and plantations reduced considerably while after the implementation of the 1996 legislation it went back to 1992 levels and beyond McKenzie 2003 until the new forest management standard started to be implemented in 1999 and PES for forest management was suspended in 2002 After that management of natural forests has decreased again Barrantes amp Salazar 2005 The strict regulations the long administrative processes to obtain harvesting permits FAO 2002 M ndez 2008 and the lack of compensation for measures that maintain environmental services have probably contributed to this decline But also the reduction in harvestable forest areas due to overcutting in the eighties and early nineties McKenzie 2003 the slow adaptation of the processing industry to changing market and supply conditions FAO 2002 the strong competition from cheaper wood from plantations in and outside the country and substitution of wood by other cheaper or more durable but not necessarily more sustainable materials in house construction have played a role 12 4 Silvicultural systems productivity annual allowable cut In Costa Rican natural forests according to the 1996 forest law silvicultural systems have to be polycyclic Until 2008 the main criteria for these systems was a minimum length of the cutting cycle of 15 years and applic
3. in different types of agroforestry systems FONAFIFO 2008 see also Box 12 1 Box 12 1 Payment for environmental services PES in Costa Rica In its 1996 forest law Costa Rica recognized four types of environmental services carbon storage and sequestration maintenance of biodiversity regulation of a clean water supply and scenic beauty A year later a payment for environmental services scheme was set up that coordinates on the one hand the payments received from bi and multilateral agreements e g Norway World Bank loan Global Environmental Facility from carbon polluters through a type of carbon tax on the gasoline water users hydroelectric power generators and beverage companies and through sale of certificates On the other hand it distributes the funds to the providers of environmental services This distribution is based on the assumption that existing natural forests provide the said services simultaneously at approximately the same proportion 25 of total value paid Plantations are expected to provide more of some of the services carbon sequestration and increase the services rendered in relation to the previous land use mostly degraded pastures Forest management reduces the total services rendered in comparison to protected forests but is assumed to maintain the same proportionality between services This form of Payment for Environmental Services was suspended in 2002 under pressure of environmental grou
4. light liberation treatments Photo Marie Landry 2007 Liberation of future crop trees is the main silvicultural treatment that has been applied in the Costa Rican tropical lowland forests Considering the effects of removal and death of trees through harvesting and silvicultural treatments together legislation allows for a maximum reduction of 40 in the basal area of trees above 30 cm dbh While in research plots initial results have been very promising achieving growth rate increments of up to 50 e g Camacho amp Finegan 1997 later research indicated that more studies need to be done on the response of individual species in different size classes This should allow for the liberation of those crop trees that have a good response potential e g Galv n et al 2006 and may avoid increased mortality e g Alfaro 2006 Since 2002 after suspension of PES for forest management few operations apply silvicultural treatments 3 The legal limit was 60 but FUNDECOR applied 35 for use of machinery and 75 for cutting and cable extraction The new standards MINAE 2008 no longer prescribe maximum slopes above which harvesting is not allowed but require impact reduction measures adequate to the local circumstances 219 Sustainable Management of Tropical Rainforests the CELOS Management System or prepare silviculture plans and the norms only require doing so if necessary for the maintenance of the structure and floristic composition of
5. reducing the fixed costs through economies of scale increasing the price of timber for the producers through market association and making money available before harvesting Photo 12 4 After recognition of ecosystem services in the through forward payment schemes all 1996 forest law and partially due to the complicated procedures contribute to the motivation of forest to obtain forest management permits many forest owners owners to invest So did the PES system preferred forest management for protection rather than for While the latter was suspended for timber production and receive an income from payment for forest management in 2002 the other environmental services rather than from timber sales options are not widely available but photo Colegio de Ingenieros Agr nomos de Costa Rica 2008 could be promising Several forest owners are venturing into the carbon market while companies outside the forest sector in response to calls for greater social responsibility have started to invest into the maintenance and enhancement of carbon stocks in private degraded forests These funds are creating a demand for management of the carbon stock in the forests requiring adjustments in the existing SFM guidelines Improve competitiveness of the industry at all shackles of the value chain particularly primary industry is little developed in Costa Rica The current characteristics of the raw material supply smaller diameters lower quality
6. www fonafifo com text_files servicios_ambientales distrib_ ha_Contratadas pdf Consulted 22 Oct 2008 FONAFIFO amp Oficina Nacional Forestal ONF 2006 La Madera en Costa Rica Situaci n actual y perspectivas 23 p online http www oficinaforestalcr org media_files download MADERAENCOSTARICA SITUACIONACTUALYPERSPECTIVAS 2006 pdf 23 Oct 2008 223 Sustainable Management of Tropical Rainforests the CELOS Management System Galv n O Louman B Galloway G 8 Obando G 2006 Efecto de la iluminaci n de copa en el crecimiento de Pentaclethra macroloba y Goethalsia meiantha Implicaciones para la silvicultura de los bosques tropicales h medos Naturales y Ambiente 46 47 117 126 Hartshorn G S 1983 Chapter 7 Plants Introduction In Janzen D H ed 1983 Costa Rican Natural History Chicago USA University of Chicago Press 118 157 Hilge L Jim nez W 8 Vargas E 2002 Los viejos y los rboles Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica Inbio San Jos Costa Rica 423 pp Houghton R A 2003 Revised estimates of the annual net flux of carbon to the atmosphere from changes in land use and land management 1850 2000 Tellus B 55 378 390 Hutchinson 1993 Puntos de partida y muestreo diagn stico para la silvicultura de bosques naturales del tr pico h medo CATIE Turrialba Costa Rica Serie t cnica informe t cnico no 204 Colecci n Silvicultura y Manejo de Bosques Naturales no 7 32 pp Louma
7. 1 1000 to 1 4000 This is followed by a commercial inventory of all trees more than 60 cm diameter at breast height dbh of all commercial species up to 40 in each forest plot and an inventory of all trees greater than 30 cm dbh of all species in sample plots of 30 x 100 m covering usually about 4 5 of the productive area Photos 12 1 amp 12 2 Tree location is estimated using GPS or the dense inventory line network as reference Most organizations such as FUNDECOR have developed their own computerized methods to do so allowing them Photo 12 2 Potential seed trees are clearly marked in the field to prevent felling damage Here Carapa guianensis Photo CATIE archives 2010 2 The new forest management standard MINAE 2008 no longer applies a minimum cutting diameter MCD of 60 cm but allows operators to justify MCDs for different species in different forest types The implementation of the commercial inventory needs to be adjusted accordingly 218 12 Costa Rica to draw accurate maps with contour lines at 2 to 5 m intervals location of protection zones due to nearness of water courses or steep slopes delineation of productive forest area location of commercial trees and their natural felling direction and the location of the road network needed to extract the trees FAO 2001 Planning is followed by reduced impact logging operations applying directional felling and in about 40 of the cases Obando 1997 30 m cab
8. 1 3 million hectares approximately 56 of the total natural forest area in six management categories 56 of which was state owned and 44 private FAO 2002 The same source reported that state administered forests reserved for future timber production occupied an area of 286 660 ha Although legally declared reserves 74 of these are still privately owned Another one million hectares of forest area exists outside these different categories of protection Most of these forests are secondary forests of different development phases around 700 000 ha Camino et al 2000 FONAFIFO amp ONF 2006 and plantations around 45 000 54 000 ha FONAFIFO amp ONF 2006 and may contribute to the future potential for timber production from natural forests in Costa Rica All of the forest area outside the protected areas is privately owned usually in properties of less than 300 ha About 212 000 ha of these had received Payment for Environmental Services PES between 1997 and 2008 of which 86 was assigned to privately protected areas MINAET 2010 see also Box 1 Table 12 1 Types of forest lands with mayor uses in Costa Rica Type of forest land Mayor uses 1 Natural forests a SINAC administered National Conservation Area System Environmental services some non timber forest products in forest reserves such as mosses berries b Privately protected Environmental services in particular tourism carbon storage maintenance of biodiversity an
9. 12 Costa Rica B Louman 12 1 Introduction Costa Rica is a relatively small country in Central America of about 5 1 million hectares in surface area and 4 million inhabitants but with a great natural diversity distributed over twelve of Holdridge s ecological life zones Hartshorn 1983 It has been able to convert its deforestation from 46 500 49 000 ha y in the 1960s and 70s to a slight net forest cover gain since 1987 Wendland 8 Bawa 1996 Camino et al 2000 FAO 2002 The actual forest area covers 2 4 million hectares FAO 2007 Although a great part of the changes in forest area and therefore deforestation rate estimates may be due to changes in forest definition differences in methodologies as well as in improved technology Camino et al 2000 FAO 2002 Houghton 2003 it also reflects changes in agricultural and forest policies and strategies as well as the ability of the government and private sector to establish plantations allow secondary forests to regenerate and implement sustainable forest management SFM activities that involve and go beyond the sustainable harvest of timber SFM in natural forests has been relatively successful in Costa Rica contributing to up to 80 of the nation s timber supply in 1999 FAO 2002 Since then with first commercial tree plantations entering into their final harvests in 1997 its contribution has rapidly dwindled to about 5 in the years from 2005 to 2009 with trees outside fo
10. Santiago Chile Proyecto GCP 133 RLA FAO Informaci n Forestal y Manejo Sostenible FAO 2004 Estado y Tendencias de la Ordenaci n Forestal en 17 Pa ses de Am rica Latina por Consultores Forestales Asociados de Honduras FORESTA Documentos de Trabajo sobre Ordenaci n Forestal Documento de Trabajo FM 26 Servicio de Desarrollo de Recursos Forestales Direcci n de Recursos Forestales FAO Roma Mayo 2004 In dito Online http www fao org docrep 008 j2628s J2628S00 HTM FAO 2007 The state of the world s forests 2007 Rome Italy FAO amp CATIE 2000 FRA Bibliograf a comentada cambios de la cobertura forestal Costa Rica Programa de evaluaci n de recursos forestales Documento de trabajo 36 Roma Italia 55 pp Finegan B Sabogal C Reiche C amp Hutchinson 1993 Los bosques h medos tropicales de Am rica central su manejo sostenible es posible y rentable Revista Forestal Centroamericana 6 17 27 FONAFIFO Fondo Nacional de Financiamiento Forestal 2007 Estudio de monitoreo de cobertura forestal de Costa Rica 2005 Resumen ejecutivo Consultant report Project ECOMERCADOS FONDOS GEF ECOMERCADOS CONVENIO DE DONACI N TF 023681 7 p online http documentacion sirefor go cr archivo cobertura cobertura002 pdf 22 Oct 2008 FONAFIFO 2008 Distribuci n de las Hect reas Contratadas en Pago de Servicios Ambi ntales por A o y por Modalidad Per odo 1997 2007 Corte al 20 de mayo 2008 Online http
11. ation of minimum cutting diameter limits 60 cm for all species as well as a maximum cutting intensity 60 of harvestable trees of a species Maginnis et al 1998 These criteria have been converted into technically justifiable criteria according to each forest type and forest operation MINAE 2008 Data on forest recovery during the first official complete management cycle starts to become available indicating that if harvesting and management is implemented according to the national standards the forest recover the harvested volumes M ndez 2008 while no apparent structural or compositional changes occur Delgado et al 1997 Alfaro 2006 In practice this means an average harvest of between 10 and 20 m ha per harvest or on average 0 67 1 m3 ha y Camacho amp Finegan 1997 SINAC 1999 Alfaro 2006 FONAFIFO amp ONF 2006 Photo 12 1 Detailed planning of timber harvest is the most important silvicultural activity in Costa Rican natural forests All FONAFIFO amp ONF 2006 estimated the forests available for timber production to be 533 000 ha They estimate that using the currently commercial trees and terrain characteristics are measured and mapped as are the trees that for specific silvicultural reasons should not be cut Photo FUNDECOR 2001 217 Sustainable Management of Tropical Rainforests the CELOS Management System common cutting cycle of 15 years this would allow annually about 35 000 ha to be har
12. d protection of water sheds c Private multiple use Timber construction furniture non timber forest products environmental services 2 Plantations Timber mainly pallets for agro export but also construction and furniture carbon sequestration 3 Trees outside forests Timber shade fruits carbon sequestration Planted forests have assumed an important role in the timber supply Camino et al 2000 estimated the plantation area at 140 000 ha in 1997 and FAO estimated that it reached 178 000 ha in 2000 all privately owned but of which 154 000 ha were established with some type of state support and the rest through private initiatives by forest companies FAO 2002 These data may not reflect the extent of plantations of commercial use which 1 FONAFIFO 2007 reported 1 3 million ha and assigned 1 1 million ha to the different management categories 214 12 Costa Rica FONAFIFO estimated to be 45 000 ha by the end of 2005 FONAFIFO 8 ONF 2006 The newly planted area has decreased from approximately 9 000 ha in the early nineties to less than 3 000 ha annually since the year 2000 raising the expectations of a raw material deficit during the coming years FONAFIFO 8 ONF 2006 There are five types of mayor forested areas in Costa Rica Table 12 1 Of these types trees outside forests receive increased attention Van Leeuwen Hofstede 1995 FAO 2002 and since 2002 the PES system has paid for nearly 2 million trees to be planted
13. egy and the evolution of land use Evaluation country case study series World Bank Washington DC USA 128 pp Campos J J Finegan B amp Villalobos R 2001 Management of goods and services from neotropical forest diversity diversified forest management in Mesoamerica In CBD technical note 3 5 16 222 12 Costa Rica CATIE Centro Agron mico Tropical de Investigaci n y Ense anza 1994 Modelo de simplificaci n de planes de manejo para bosques naturales de la regi n centroamericana CATIE Turrialba Costa Rica 29 pp CNCF Comisi n Nacional de Certificaci n Forestal 1999 Est ndares y procedimientos para el manejo forestal sostenible y la certificaci n forestal en Costa Rica CNCF San Jos Costa Rica 51 pp Delgado D Finegan B Zamora N 8 Meir P 1997 Efectos del aprovechamiento forestal y el tratamiento silvicultural en un bosque h medo del noreste de Costa Rica Cambios en la riqueza y composici n de la vegetaci n CATIE Turrialba Costa Rica Serie t cnica informe t cnico no 298 Colecci n Manejo Diversificado de Bosques Naturales no 12 43 pp FAO Food and Agricultural Organization 2001 El uso de computadoras porgramas e instrumentos electr nicos en la planificaci n y seguimiento de planes de manejo del bosque h medo tropical un caso en Costa Rica Manejo forestal documento de trabajo no 1 FAO Roma Italy 75 pp FAO 2002 Estado de la Informaci n Forestal de Costa Rica
14. les to extract the timber Usually small bulldozers are used both for road work and timber extraction Log landings are placed outside the forest area wherever possible Post harvest activities used to be based on silvicultural plans following diagnostic sampling adapted for mixed age forests from Asian line sampling Hutchinson 1993 This sampling was designed to indicate whether liberation treatment would be necessary or not tallying the number of outstanding future crop trees and evaluating their social position in the forest Due to the abundance of commercial trees in the forests and the possible need for additional treatments adaptations were made to the sampling design eliminating the tallying of trees with a dbh below 10 cm and adding the tallying of all trees within the 10 x 10 m plots to get an idea of basal area competition Quir s 1998 In the first years of its application this sampling produced very useful results but organizations that only worked in one type of forests using more or less a constant harvesting intensity and similar extraction methods found that the results ofthe sampling became repetitive and did no longer justify the costs about US 9 ha Quir s amp G mez 1998 The new forest management standard does no longer require diagnostic sampling unless the impacts of proposed harvesting cannot be predicted from previous studies Photo 12 3 Photo 12 3 A forest several years after timber harvest and
15. n B De Camino R 2004 Cap tulo 1 Aspectos generales In L Orozco Vilchez ed Planificaci n del manejo diversificado de bosques latifoliados h medos tropicales CATIE Turrialba Costa Rica Serie t cnica manual t cnico no 56 1 54 Louman B Garay M Yalle S Campos J J Locatelli B Villalobos R L pez G Carrera F 2005 Efectos del pago por servicios ambientales y la certificaci n forestal en el desempe o ambiental y socioecon mico del manejo de bosques naturales en Costa Rica Colecci n Manejo Diversificado de Bosques Naturales Publicaci n no 30 CATIE Serie T cnica Informe T cnico NO 338 31 pp Magginis S M ndez J 8 Davies J 1998 Manual para el manejo de bloques peque os de bosque h medo tropical con especial referencia a la zona norte de Costa Rica Lara y segura asoc San Jos Costa Rica 208 pp McKenzie T A 2003 Tendencias y para el Sector Forestal Nacional de Costa Rica Hasta el A o 2020 Consultant report for the Comisi n Forestal de Am rica Latina y el Caribe COFLAC Proyecto Tendencias y Perspectivas del Sector Forestal de Am rica Latina 23 p available online http documentacion sirefor go cr archivo tendencias tendencias2020_2_ pdf 22 Oct 2008 M ndez J 1993 Manejo del bosque natural en la Regi n Huetar Norte de Costa Rica Revista Forestal Centroamericana 6 42 49 M ndez J 2008 El manejo silvicultural polic clico en bosques h medos de baj
16. nido en la zona Atl ntica norte de Costa Rica An lisis financiero CATIE Turrialba Costa Rica Serie t cnica informe t cnico no 303 Colecci n Manejo Diversificado de Bosques Naturales no 13 22 pp Quir s D amp Finegan B 1994 Manejo sostentable de un bosque natural tropical en Costa Rica CATIE Turrialba Costa Rica Serie t cnica informe t cnico no 225 Colecci n Silvicultura y Manejo de Bosques Naturales no 9 25 pp Sader S Joyce A 1988 Deforestation Rates and Trends in Costa Rica 1940 to 1983 Biotropica 20 11 19 SINAC Sistema Nacional de Areas de Conservaci n 1999 Breve descripci n del estado de los recursos forestales en Costa Rica San Jos Costa Rica 21 pp SINAC 2006 Estrategia nacional de manejo del fuego de Costa Rica 2006 2010 Online http documentacion sirefor go cr archivo incendios emf_2006 pdf 22 Oct 2008 Van Leeuwen A C J amp Hofstede A M 1995 Forests trees and farming in the Atlantic zone of Costa Rica CATIE Gu piles Costa Rica Serie t cnica Informe t cnico no 257 48 pp Wendland A amp Bawa K S 1996 Tropical forestry The Costa Rican experience in management of forest resources Journal of sustainable forestry 3 91 156 225
17. orical development in forest exploitation During the 1950s and 1960s Costa Rica went through a period of colonization of its lowland forest areas promoting conversion of forests into pasture lands through among other measures recognition of land titles on improved land FAO 2002 Hilge et al 215 Sustainable Management of Tropical Rainforests the CELOS Management System 2002 Harvesting of trees in the natural forests was very selective limited to a few species of high value for the market e g Cedrela odorata Swietenia macrophylla or for local construction and agricultural production purposes e g poles of Minquartia guianensis were cut for the pepper and vanilla cultivation Camacho amp Finegan 1997 FAO 2002 M ndez 2008 Costa Rica had its first forest legislation in 1969 and since 1973 foundation of the National University UNA and 1976 foundation of the Costa Rican Institute of Technology ITCR national universities offer forestry curricula It was however not until 1984 that the first management plan was elaborated based on an explorative forest inventory In the new forest legislation of 1986 management plans were incorporated and during the same year it was prohibited by decree to convert forest land use into other types of land use that involved removing the forest cover MINAE 2002 In 1992 harvest regulations were issued and Certificates for Forest Management CAFMA were granted as a form of subsidies for
18. ource of timber in the near future McKenzie 2003 Barrantes amp Salazar 2006 FONAFIFO amp ONF 2006 but will only be able to do so if a sustainable manner of its management is promoted This requires the forest sector to address a number of limitations extracted from McKenzie 2003 FAO 2004 FONAFIFO amp ONF 2006 Campos et al 20007 M ndez 2008 Improve control mechanisms financial and human resources are insufficient to implement detailed control on forest and timber transport operations Current mechanisms still facilitate corruption while legal offenses are mildly punished Although improvements in these aspects are very necessary these may have little effect if these are not accompanied by improvements in any of the other factors mentioned below Increase participation of society in promotion of sustainable forest management environmentalists lobbying has achieved very strict legislation for forest management making it easier to convert forests illegally into agricultural land than to apply forest management Society is conservation oriented and PES for protection has been able to increase the protected forest areas by about 40 However non protected areas continue to be converted or are heavily degraded by uncontrolled logging and agricultural activities SFM could have an important role in conserving the forest cover in these areas as well as in the increasing area 4 Bryan Finegan October 2008 Director of the chair of fore
19. ps that argued that forest management already generates an income and that the state should not increase this income through PES This was replaced by payments for the planting of trees in agricultural systems since the decision makers considered that this would be more effective providing services through carbon sequestration and maintenance of biodiversity The latter above all through providing connectivity between forest fragments The amounts paid to the providers are determined annually and are based on the opportunity costs of adopting the required good practices rather than on the quality and quantity of services rendered In the case of natural forest protection marginal cattle farming is used as a reference in 2008 this was about USS 64 ha y paid during renewable five year contract periods In the case of plantations the costs of establishing plantations is used as a guideline actually paying US 816 ha spread over 5 years which covers approximately 75 of total costs It is assumed that all services are rendered as long as forest plantation or trees exist and good practices as indicated in the service contracts are applied This simplifies the payments and allows monitoring to concentrate on practices and forest cover rather than on the costly measuring of services rendered It does however not recognize the different levels of threat that the forests in different areas of the country experience 12 3 Hist
20. rests and plantations providing initially an increasing proportion of the national supply Barrantes amp Salazar 2006 but later declining due to a declining demand for timber products ONF 2010 Some experts presume however that within the current structure of the domestic demand plantation timber will not be able to substitute the high quality timber from natural forests McKenzie 2003 On the other hand in recent years the high demand for agricultural crops such as pineapple and banana is influencing the demand for timber for pallets using plantations as their main raw material source Barrantes amp Salazar 2006 213 Sustainable Management of Tropical Rainforests the CELOS Management System As early as 1997 sawmills saw their traditional raw material supply of large sized logs reduce considerably forcing them to close or change towards the processing of smaller logs from plantations and secondary forests Camino et al 2000 Starting in 2007 Costa Rica has become increasingly dependent on timber imports first from Nicaragua but later above all from Chile and Argentina ONF 2010 to provide its domestic demand for timber products and stakeholders are discussing whether and how to bring more natural and planted forest area under SFM for timber production 12 2 Forest reserves and off reserve tree resources and their utilization Costa Rica administers its forests through eleven Conservation Areas In 1999 they administered
21. st ecology of CATIE He participates in the newly established research network 220 12 Costa Rica under secondary forests This will not be possible if society maintains a poor sometimes erroneous image of SFM Improve administrative procedures for approval of harvesting waiting for six months or more for harvest plan approval has made many forest owners opt for other forms of land use including protection but also gradual conversion into agricultural lands Reduce excessive legislation related to forest management related to the previous point costs of forest management are elevated by excessive legislation in particular related to the standards for forest management These have recently been modified and greater transparency and flexibility has been created It is still too early to assess the effects of these changes No effect could be seen during 2009 but this may have been due to the global financial crisis ONF 2010 rather than to lack of effectiveness of the changes in the standard Without additional options for financing forest activities however the realized changes may not achieve the desired effects Additional financial resources for forest management such as PES cheap credits private investment only few forest operators have invested in plantations and improved forest management considering the road between investment and profit making too long and risky Experiences in the private sector have shown that
22. sustainable forest management Maginnis et al 1998 FAO 2002 All of these combined induced a rapid evolution of polycyclic management of natural forests drawing from experiences in other Latin American countries in particular the CELOS Management System in Suriname as well as from South East Asia e g Finegan et al 1993 M ndez 1993 CATIE 1994 Quir s amp Finegan 1994 Wendland amp Bawa 1996 M ndez 2008 In 1996 the Portico operations in natural Carapa forests in the North of Costa Rica became the first FSC certified forest operations of the country a certification which it has maintained ever since NGOs such as JUNAFORCA CODEFORSA and FUNDECOR assumed a leading role as forest management advisors for large groups of small holders working with owners of both natural forests and plantations From 1994 until 1998 different actors driven by the private sector and supported by the government studied the impacts of timber harvesting in the country They formed a working group to prepare a proposal for a standard for sustainable forest management for Costa Rica using the impact studies as basis for the development of indicators This standard was incorporated into the 1996 forest legislation and its criteria and indicators were formally approved as legal norms in 1998 CNCF 1999 This standard was revised in 2002 and a new revision was done in 2007 resulting in a new less prescriptive standard gazetted in 2008 MINAE 2008 In
23. the early nineties interest increased in forest goods and services other than timber and the 1996 forest law recognizes for the first time the value of forests for the provision of four types of services water regulation maintenance of biodiversity carbon sequestration and storage and scenic beauty A system was set up to channel money from users to the producers Payment for Environmental Services or PES see Box 12 1 and the first payments were made in 1997 Originally this scheme also included PES for forest management that complied at least with legal norms for harvesting and post harvesting treatment of the forests In order to ensure the production of environmental services in the forest the new legislation put restrictions on timber harvests increasing the costs of planning reducing the annual allowable cut requiring more water and soil protection measures within management units and requiring the implementation of silvicultural treatments To compensate for these extra costs it was decided to also implement payment for the maintenance of environmental services through sustainable 216 12 Costa Rica forest management Campos et al 2001 In spite of the positive effect of PES on the quality of forest management Louman et al 2005 this modality was suspended in 2002 in favour of payment for tree planting within agroforestry systems FONAFIFO 2008 thought to be a more effective way to produce the desired services mainly carbon
24. the forest Different organizations have established more than 500 permanent sample plots PSP in the Costa Rican forests Finegan pers comm some of which have greatly contributed to the current knowledge on the natural forests their management and its impacts Until recently however this information was scattered and little accessible for researchers and forest managers Considering the increased importance of monitoring of changes in the forests due to management and climate change these organizations have formed a research network that should allow the forest sector to adapt to changing circumstances and improve the information needed to adequate decision making 12 6 Main issues restricting sustainable forest management at present Current legal natural forest management practices can be considered good Louman et al 2005 Barrantes amp Salazar 2006 but only supply 5 of the local timber demand the rest coming from plantations trees outside the forest and imports Major threats to natural forest management are illegal logging and forest conversion e g Barrantes amp Salazar 2006 Campos et al 2007 and fires SINAC 2006 With an increasing demand and the inability of plantations to provide the necessary raw materials McKenzie 2003 Barrantes amp Salazar 2006 the pressure on the natural forests will increase as will the threat of illegal logging FONAFIFO amp ONF 2006 Managed natural forest will remain an important s
25. timber requires for investments in new machinery and development of new products 221 Sustainable Management of Tropical Rainforests the CELOS Management System Improve the information base as well as the monitoring and research capacity forests are complex and still little is known of the long term reaction of specific species to forest management and climate change Although legislation has improved enormously over the past decade still policy decisions are made without knowing the consequences or those of previous policy decisions Monitoring frameworks and research could contribute to better decision making in the future However in spite of the 2000 national forest inventory that with the assistance of FAO developed a good methodology to collect information on multiple resources in and outside a network of permanent sample plots no inventory or monitoring framework exists in Costa Rica SFM practices were originally derived from the CELOS experiences in particular regarding the harvesting system Over time Costa Rica has gone well beyond the CELOS system in the application of exact planning tools and adjusting silvicultural treatments to national objectives with greater emphasis on the conservation of biodiversity Lessons learned from these experiences have allowed the forest sector to revise the legal framework and come up with a proposal of forest management standards more appropriate for the current situation This development
26. ura en la Regi n Norte de Costa Rica Oral presentation VI Latin American Forestry Congress Venezuela 2 5 April 2008 16 p figures and tables MINAE Ministry of the environment and energy 2002 El xito forestal de Costa Rica en cinco casos San Jos Costa Rica 60 pp MINAE Ministry of the environment and energy 2008 Est ndares de sostenibilidad para manejo de bosques naturales principios criterios e indicadores c digo de pr cticas y manual de procedimientos La Gaceta 115 24 27 MINAET Ministry of the environment energy and telecommunication 2010 Readiness Preparation Plan Costa Rica San Jos Costa Rica 224 12 Costa Rica Obando G 1997 Evaluaci n del desempe o de v as de transporte menor asistido por computadora para el aprovechamiento selectivo de gu cimo Goethalsia meiantha en un bosque h medo tropical de tierras bajas ubicado en Sarapiqu Costa Rica Tesis Mag Sc CATIE Turrialba Costa Rica 105 pp Oficina Nacional Forestal ONF 2010 Costa Rica Forestal Usos y aportes de la madera en Costa Rica estad sticas 2009 ONF Bel n Heredia Costa Rica 23 pp disponible en www onfcr org Accessed 23 March 2011 Quir s D 1998 Muestreos para la prescripci n de tratamientos silviculturales en bosques naturales latifoliados gu a de campo CATIE Turrialba Costa Rica Manejo forestal tropical no 4 8 pp Quir s D amp G mez M 1998 Manejo sustentable de un bosque primario interve
27. vested in contrast to the 2005 figure of about 3 000 ha annually derived from the same publication With an average harvest of 15 m ha the harvest of 35 000 ha y represents 525 000 m y ten times the current level of harvesting and approximately 33 of the expected demand for timber in 2020 FONAFIFO amp ONF 2006 The rest will have to come from plantations or be imported 12 5 Current practice Forest management in Costa Rica occurs mainly in smallholder plots with an average size of approximately 70 ha Maginnis et al 1998 Management planning is usually done by a registered forest regent holder of a forestry degree and legally responsible Mi for the veracity of planning documents and supervisory reports The forest regent shares this responsibility with the land owner and together they have to supervise the implementation of harvesting usually done by contractors Planning and implementation need to follow strict rules set out in the standard for natural forest management This standard has recently been modified MINAE 2008 but up to date only few operators have obtained experience under the new rules Due to the small size of the operations management and harvest planning are usually done simultaneously for the whole forest area As a first step a team enters to set up a network of inventory lines and take topographic measures that allow drawing a detailed topographic map of the area at a scale of approximately
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