We are beginning to awaken to our international obligations on climate change issues and the world is beginning to understand the importance of avoided deforestation in the tropics as a key component in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the principle driver of climate change.

Even though 20% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the last 20 years have resulted from deforestation primarily in the tropics, the clean development mechanisms (CDMs) under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, specifically the Marrakesh Accords under LULUCF of the Kyoto Protocols, have ignored the value of standing forests within the cap and trade system. In spite of this insult to tropical countries trying to preserve their forests, Costa Rica has nevertheless moved forward successfully with over a decade of verification and administration of this innovative and ethically sound avoided deforestation program.

While primarily funded by a carbon tax within Costa Rica, the Pax Natura Foundation has now demonstrated that funding for the program can be derived from the voluntary carbon markets in the U.S. and beyond. It is far more economical, for example, to preserve a CO2 molecule in tropical rain forests than to invest in carbon capture and storage or avoided deforestation in North America according to the PewCenter on Climate Change at Harvard University. No other country has such a proven track record of successful management of it’s forests, including carbon sequestration, as Costa Rica.

Randall Tolpinrud,
President Pax Natura