Developing an integrated forestry sector MRV system
The National Forest Monitoring System is a national MRV system, currently under development, aimed at improving the coordination and organisation amongst different institutions involved in the forestry sector in Costa Rica, in order to generate quality and verifiable information for different purposes.
The National Forest Monitoring System builds on Costa Rica’s Payment for Environmental Services (PES) monitoring system to support significant forest sector-related national policy objectives and/or programmes, including: (i) the national 2021 carbon neutrality goal; (ii) participation in the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) and efforts to access its funds; (iii) compliance with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; and (iv) pursuit of the Verified Carbon Standard Jurisdictional and Nested REDD+ (VCS JNR) Framework for accounting and crediting REDD+ programmes.
A coordination mechanism is in place where a group of specialists have come together to identify and solve technical and information gaps, in order to complete and adjust this new overarching MRV system that caters to various different requirements and needs. A series of completed, on-going and planned actions are developed under this process.
- Stronger coordination of effort: Without the comprehensive MRV system development undertaken, the varied and many goals and/or programmes adhered to in Costa Rica related to the forestry sector could lead to confusion, duplication of efforts, double counting and other problems for those involved and interested in the results.
- Enabling greater participation in international mechanisms: PES has served as a platform to quickly meet the requirements to access the FCPF and Costa Rica has signed a letter of intent with the World Bank, trustee body of the Readiness Carbon Fund.
- Strengthens nationwide efforts and international acceptance: The efforts to demonstrate additional terrestrial carbon sequestration, leakage and permanence, etc., make the Costa Rican product more accurate, transparent, complete and reliable.
- Improved access to global funds: Strengthened MRV framework that harmonises at least four different goals and/or programmes, generating information which enables access to global funds when competing with other countries that would generally be considered more important given their forest size and forest protection urgency.
- National Meteorological Institute (IMN)
- National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC)
- National Forestry Financing Fund (FONAFIFO)
- National Forestry Office (ONF)
- College of Agricultural Engineers (CIAgro)
- REDD+ Secretariat; National Academy
- Department of Climate Change (DCC)
- Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE)
- Indigenous and Rural Coordinating Association of Central American Communal Agroforestry (ACICAFOC)
- Costa Rican Forest Chamber (CCF)
- Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAG)
- National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC)