Assessing the Impact of Institutional Design of Payments for Environmental Services: The Costa Rican Experience

By now, these programmes have been implemented in many countries of the Latin American region (e.g. Mexico, Ecuador and Colombia). But Costa Rica was one of the first developing countries to implement this policy nationwide, recognizing legally that forests generate services that need to be compensated. This pioneering effort was called the Payment for Environmental Services (PES) programme. It officially started in 1997 and is still under way.

Duke Scholars

Author Alexander Pfaff Sanford School of Public Policy