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Environmental Service Payments:

Environmental services that are offered by a forest or an area in rehabilitation are: the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions (fixation, reduction, sequestration, storage, and absorption of carbon), the protection of water for urban use (rural or hydroelectric), the protection of biodiversity for conservation and sustainable use, scientific and pharmaceutical investigation, genetic improvements, ecosystem and species protection, and scenic beauty.

Environmental Service Payments (ESP) refer to the programs or initiatives established in Costa Rica to compensate the key actors in the community who work to protect the few pieces of tropical forest that remain, as well as for the rehabilitation of degraded areas. ESPs have provided financing for organizations such as the ACM to administer protection, maintenance, and administrative programs which are difficult for entities, individual patrons, and donors to fund. Since its establishment in 1997, the ESP program has shown constant growth, as well as the monetary compensation it offers. At this point in time, compensations from ESP constitute approximately 50% of the ACM’s budget and come from three different sources. The first is from the National Finance Forestry Fund (FONAFIFO-MINAE), the second from the FONAFIFO-National Energy Electricity Company (compensation for the protection of water resources for the Hydroelectric Project El Encanto), and the third from a private agreement between the ACM and Inversiones la Manguera (for the Hydroelectric Project La Esperanza).