Search

The contribution of environmental fiscal instruments (taxes and fees) used in Costa Rica to finance conversation activities on biodiversity is analyzed. The collection of fiscal income is estimated, as well as its distribution in the different projects in favor of the environment. These tax revenues have contributed to limitations and deficiencies in forest recovery and the protection of bodies of water, mostly located in rural areas, and have incorporated women and indigenous people in these economic and conservation activities. Thus, environmental fiscal policy has contributed moderately to the sustainable development of these rural territories, which makes it urgent for fiscal policy to identify new environmental fiscal instruments that redirect towards a resilient and inclusive development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Creating landscapes with connectivity is vital for protecting biodiversity and meeting the environmental targets embedded in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, with connectivity specifically mentioned in Target 11 of the Convention on Biological Diversity Aichi Targets. Costa Rica created the National Biological Corridor Program (NBCP) in 2006 to enhance connectivity among protected areas. Targeted investments of payments for environmental services (PES) are the main tools used within the designated biological corridors. We conducted spatially explicit analyses to determine whether Costa Rica's NBCP, using PES, enhanced landscape connectivity within the Paso de las Nubes Biological Corridor. We conducted landscape modelling in order to determine the connectivity held within PES's properties by developing connectivity resistance surfaces and electrical current models. The results indicate that PES properties established after the NBCP contributed more to areas with intermediate values of connectivity and less to areas with high connectivity values as compared to properties before the NBCP. Although overall connectivity within the corridor has decreased since NBCP establishment, our results confirm the importance of PES properties for landscape connectivity, but emphasize the need for spatially targeted PES in order to improve viable paths of landscape connectivity among protected areas. Future targeted PES investments could contribute greatly to meeting connectivity goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental education is commonly claimed to be at the centre of efforts to achieve sustainable development. Since the 1980s, Costa Rica has been one of the acknowledged leaders in efforts to promote environmental learning, and national policy includes a three-fold national development strategy which simultaneously promotes education, conservation and ecotourism. As of yet, however, what is happening ‘on the ground’ has not been examined in much detail. This article addresses this gap in the literature by providing an overview of the diverse programmes and actors involved in environmental education in Costa Rica, as well as analysing the politics of its implementation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article presents a historical pursuit of how environmental education has suffered and of how this has moved from the 1980s to the 20th century including tendencies related to sustainable development. The transformation is analyzed focusing on the suffering of nature and the notion of "object," modeled from the XVIII century Emilio of Rousseau, and how it ends up becoming the modern conception of ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]