La Fundación Universitaria para el Desarrollo de la Provincia de Córdoba, (The Foundation for the Development of Costa Rican Volcanic Mountain Range) FUNDECOR, a non-governmental organization (NGO) set up to promote the preservation and sustainable development of the mountainous central region of Costa Rica, has set aside an area of over 24,400 hectares (approximately 60,380 acres or 95 square miles) representing almost 1/2% of the nation’s entire land area.  It is bounded on the south and west by three national parks, Braulio Carrillo, Volcan Irazú and Volcan Turrialba, and on the north by  the Caribbean Lowlands.

The area is mostly hilly or mountainous, primarily rural, with a few small villages, extensive farmland, and with several areas already protected as private preserves or municipal watersheds. Approximately 12,000 hectares of forest-lands are available for the Pax Natura project.

Most of these forests are old-growth, or mature second-growth, humid tropical rainforests of the type noted for their extreme diversity of species.  Besides preserving this priceless biodiversity, the forests protect local aquifers and watersheds, provide flood control and mitigate erosion and, perhaps most importantly for the world’s climate, sequester almost 527,000 metric tons of carbon (equivalent to 1,935,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide) within their collective biomass.

The Project proposes to enroll as much as 50% of the forest land in the FONAFIFO (Fondo Nacional de Financiamiento Forestal  or National Fund for Forestry Finance) Payment for Environmental Services (PES) program.  The carbon sequestration rights embodied in these lands through “avoidance of deforestation” will be offered to the international carbon markets abroad through the Pax Natura Foundation and its agents.

La Fundación Universitaria para el Desarrollo de la Provincia de Córdoba, (The Foundation for the Development of Costa Rican Volcanic Mountain Range) FUNDECOR, a non-governmental organization (NGO) set up to promote the preservation and sustainable development of the mountainous central region of Costa Rica, has set aside an area of over 24,400 hectares (approximately 60,380 acres or 95 square miles) representing almost 1/2% of the nation’s entire land area.  It is bounded on the south and west by three national parks, Braulio Carrillo, Volcan Irazú and Volcan Turrialba, and on the north by  the Caribbean Lowlands.

The area is mostly hilly or mountainous, primarily rural, with a few small villages, extensive farmland, and with several areas already protected as private preserves or municipal watersheds. Approximately 12,000 hectares of forest-lands are available for the Pax Natura project.

Most of these forests are old-growth, or mature second-growth, humid tropical rainforests of the type noted for their extreme diversity of species.  Besides preserving this priceless biodiversity, the forests protect local aquifers and watersheds, provide flood control and mitigate erosion and, perhaps most importantly for the world’s climate, sequester almost 527,000 metric tons of carbon (equivalent to 1,935,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide) within their collective biomass.

The Project proposes to enroll as much as 50% of the forest land in the FONAFIFO (Fondo Nacional de Financiamiento Forestal  or National Fund for Forestry Finance) Payment for Environmental Services (PES) program.  The carbon sequestration rights embodied in these lands through “avoidance of deforestation” will be offered to the international carbon markets abroad through the Pax Natura Foundation and its agents.