Costa Rica, known for its lush jungle and rich biodiversity, now faces a dilemma as one environmental priority, reforestation, runs headlong into another: reducing the use of fossil fuels.
A frog named "rana azul" or "rana de cafetal" stands in a protected forest on the outskirts of San Jose, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2022. Tourists who flock to Costa Rica to see toucans, sloths and brilliantly colored frogs might someday see a charge on their hotel bill to aid forest conservation. A frog named "rana azul" or "rana de cafetal" stands in a protected forest on the outskirts of San Jose, Costa Rica, Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2022.
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — Costa Rica went from having one of the world’s highest deforestation rates in the 1980s to a nation centered on ecotourism, luring world travelers with the possibility of moving between marine reserves and cloud forest in a single day. But the Central American country known for lush jungle and rich biodiversity now faces a dilemma as one environmental priority – reforestation -- runs headlong into another -- reducing the use of fossil fuels.
The program that has paid landowners for 25 years not to cut down trees depends almost entirely on fuel tax revenue, which stands to fade away by 2050 as Costa Rica converts public and private transportation to electricity in pursuit of net-zero emissions. That has the government hunting for alternative funding options.
Those could include new taxes or a tweaked mix of existing ones. Tourists who flock to see toucans, sloths and brilliantly colored frogs might someday see a charge on their hotel bill to aid forest conservation. And Costa Rica will continue to pressure developed countries — the planet’s biggest polluters — to compensate countries doing more than their share to store carbon.
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