Cases / Protected area / relocation · Costa Rica · 1997
Costa Rica payments for ecosystem services and forest recovery
Nature's voice · report
My cover fell to about 21% in the late 1980s and is now close to 60%.
Did nature suffer? Yes. Harm is on record. Disputed
Recorded
- Between 2000 and 2015, 5,566 hectares of my forest became pineapple plantation.
- 5,566 hectares of my forest were lost.Forest converted to pineapple; 3,192 ha in Huetar Norte.
Accounts of the harm differ
Did the payments cause Costa Rica's forest recovery?
- International bodies UNDP: Forests doubled since the programme began; success attributed to combined policies, with the payments' contribution not separated. Earthshot Prize / UNDP
- Researchers Sanchez-Azofeifa et al. (2007): Deforestation in 1997-2000 was not significantly lower in areas receiving payments; earlier policies and commodity prices could explain the decline.
Since 1997 Costa Rica has paid landowners not to cut forest or to plant trees, and forest cover rose from about 21% in the late 1980s to nearly 60%. An independent study of the early years found no significant effect of the payments on deforestation.
About 21% to about 60%Forest cover: late 1980s to today
Cover share as recorded; a 2007 study found no significant effect of the payments in 1997-2000.
Cover share as recorded; a 2007 study found no significant effect of the payments in 1997-2000.
Status As of October 2025: UNDP and the Earthshot Prize credit the programme with doubling forests; the only independent measurement in the sources reviewed, covering 1997-2000, found no significant effect of the payments.
What?
A state programme paying landowners not to cut forest or to plant trees, alongside a 1996 ban on unauthorised forest conversion.
Where?
Costa Rica; 3,192 ha of the pineapple conversion in Huetar Norte.
When?
Payments since 1997; forest law 1996; measurements for 1997-2000 and 2000-2015.
Who?
Gained
- Owners of larger, titled farms — Were the main participants in the payments (2005 qualitative finding)
- Costa Rica — Received the Earthshot Prize of GBP 1 million (2021) and World Bank carbon payments Earthshot Prize / UNDP
Lost
- Bribri and Cabecar Indigenous territories — Received a smaller share of the payments
- Fuel-tax and water-bill payers — Financed the programme Fundar
Harmed
- Forest in Huetar Norte and elsewhere — 5,566 ha converted to pineapple in 2000-2015
Why?
The sources reviewed give the programme's aim as keeping forest standing and planting trees; they do not state further motives.
How?
Payments to landowners funded by fuel tax and water bills, supported by the 1996 ban on unauthorised conversion. Fundar
6 of 6 questions answered from the record
What happened
The record, in order.
Forest cover in Costa Rica fell from about 75% at the start of the twentieth century to about 21% in the late 1980s. It is now close to 60%. Most of the recovery is secondary forest that grew on abandoned pasture; teak and melina plantations can also be counted as forest.
Forest Law No. 7575 of 1996 prohibited converting forest to other uses without authorisation. Since 1997 the state has run a payments-for-ecosystem-services programme (PSA, from the Spanish) that pays landowners who do not cut forest or who plant trees. Fuel-tax payers and water-bill payers finance it. A 2025 Fundar annex put the fuel tax's share of the funding at 88%.
Sanchez-Azofeifa and colleagues (2007) found that in 1997-2000 deforestation was not significantly lower in areas that received payments. Earlier policies and commodity prices could explain the decline. Over 1997-2003 payments for protection fell from above USD 20 million to below USD 4 million, and the only carbon sale recorded was to Norway, for USD 2 million. A 2005 qualitative finding was that participants were owners of larger, titled farms. The Bribri and Cabecar Indigenous territories received a smaller share of the payments.
In 2021 the programme won the Earthshot Prize (GBP 1 million). The announcement said forests had doubled since the programme began. In October 2025 UNDP repeated the statement, attributing the success to combined policies without separating the payments' own contribution. The World Bank made results-based carbon payments of about USD 16.4 million in 2022 and about USD 17.5 million in 2025, about USD 34 million in total.
UNDP satellite monitoring recorded 5,566 hectares of forest converted to pineapple plantations in 2000-2015, 3,192 of them in Huetar Norte. Pesticide use was about 20 kg per hectare nationally in 2019, against 45 kg for pineapple and 70 kg for banana.
- 1987Forest cover down to about 21% (late 1980s)
- 1996Forest Law No. 7575 bans unauthorised conversion of forest
- 1997PSA payments begin
- 2007Study: no significant effect of payments on deforestation in 1997-2000
- 20155,566 ha of forest converted to pineapple since 2000 (UNDP satellite monitoring)
- 2019Indigenous land-recovery leader Sergio Rojas killed in Salitre; case closed 2020 without a perpetrator identified
- 2021Earthshot Prize awarded to the programme
- 2022World Bank results-based carbon payment of about USD 16.4 million
- 2025UNDP repeats that forests doubled; World Bank payment of about USD 17.5 million
What was said
Claims, in the words of those who made them.
Where accounts differ
Each party's account, side by side, with its source. The record does not settle these points; it shows them.
Did the payments cause Costa Rica's forest recovery?
International bodies
UNDP
Forests doubled since the programme began; success attributed to combined policies, with the payments' contribution not separated.
Earthshot Prize / UNDPResearchers
Sanchez-Azofeifa et al. (2007)
Deforestation in 1997-2000 was not significantly lower in areas receiving payments; earlier policies and commodity prices could explain the decline.
How it looked
What was shown, beside what was recorded.
Shown
- Forests had doubled since the payment programme began (paraphrase of the 2021 announcement).Earthshot Prize announcement, 2021
- Forests had doubled since the payment programme began; success attributed to combined policies (paraphrase).UNDP, via the Earthshot Prize, 15 October 2025 · Earthshot Prize / UNDP
Recorded
- Cover about 75% early in the twentieth century, about 21% in the late 1980s, close to 60% now.
- 1997-2000: deforestation not significantly lower in areas receiving payments (Sanchez-Azofeifa et al., 2007).
- Payments for protection fell from above USD 20 million to below USD 4 million in 1997-2003; Norway paid USD 2 million for the only carbon sale recorded.
- 5,566 ha of forest converted to pineapple in 2000-2015, 3,192 ha in Huetar Norte.
- Sergio Rojas, leader of an Indigenous land-recovery movement, was killed in Salitre in 2019; the case was closed in 2020 without a perpetrator identified.
Who gained
Money that reached nature, beside money that stayed elsewhere.
Reached nature or the ground
Not published
No figure published.
Gained elsewhere
Not totalled
Currency: USD · Window: 1997-2025. All figures cover the same period. * Estimate built from cited figures.
Responses on record
- UNDP (2025-10-15): Attributed Costa Rica's success to combined policies and did not separate the payments' contribution. · Earthshot Prize / UNDP
In court and with insurers
Every proceeding and every insurer decision on record.
Lawsuits and rulings
No court case on record. No court has ruled on this case.
Insurers
No insurer decision on record.
What nature saw
Outcomes measured on the ground, and nature's note.
Nature's report opens this page. Below: further outcomes measured on the ground.
Forest cover
About 21% to about 60%
Late 1980s to today
Effect of payments, 1997-2000
Not significant
Sanchez-Azofeifa et al., 2007
Forest converted to pineapple
5,566 ha
2000-2015; UNDP satellite monitoring
What we don't know
Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.
Nature
- Disputed Did the payments cause Costa Rica's forest recovery?
Record
- Not measured UNDP does not separate the payments' own contribution from that of other policies, and gives no measurement method for the doubling statement.
- Insufficient Reported but not independently verified: 39% of funds in 1997-2008 went to for-profit companies and under 1% to smallholders on agrarian-reform land.
- Insufficient Reported but not independently verified: the payments' effect on deforestation of 0-0.2% a year (Robalino and Pfaff).
- Insufficient Reported but not independently verified: forest cover of 53-60% today (FAO, via IPS, 2016), and the attribution of recovery to the collapse of beef prices, export agriculture, off-farm jobs and ecotourism.
- Insufficient Reported but not independently verified: the killing of Broran leader Jehry Rivera in Terraba in 2020, and the status of that case.
- Insufficient The additional effect of better-targeted payments after 2013 is not verified.
Did the harm stop?
Cover recovered and has stayed high; forest was nonetheless converted to pineapple plantations in 2000-2015.
Who paid?
Fuel-tax and water-bill payers financed the programme; the World Bank and Norway made carbon payments.
Sources
Voices on record: — Company or project— Government and regulators— Courts✓ Press and investigations✓ Communities and civil society✓ Researchers✓ International bodies
Press and investigations
- Forests and crops grow hand in hand in Costa RicaIPS · 2016-07
Communities and civil society
- Annex on payments for ecosystem services (Fundar, 2025)Fundar · 2025-10
Researchers
- Robalino and Pfaff (2013), Land EconomicsLand Economics · 2013
- Ecopayments and deforestation in Costa Rica: a nationwide analysis of PSA's initial yearsDuke Sanford School (Pfaff) · 2013-01-03
International bodies
- Costa Rica, UNDP and the Earthshot Prize: a success story worth repeatingEarthshot Prize / UNDP · 2025-10-15
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