Frequent ask questions

The reception period for this year began on January 23 and reception:

For the modalities of Protection, Regeneration and Protection after Harvest: from January 30 to April 06, 2018.

For the modalities of Reforestation and SAF, the period runs from January 30 to October 31, 2018.

The modalities that the PPSA finances with their respective amounts per hectare and per tree, can be found in the statistics of assigned amounts.

Financial contributions received from the State, from the selective tax on fuels for PSA.

1. Water canon.
2. Credits from international organizations (World Bank).
3. Deposits and financial products obtained (CSA).
4. Agreements with companies.

What requirements must be met to access the PPSA?

The requirements to fulfill for inscribed farms are:

1. Name of the owner, co-owners and/or anonymous society and their qualities (complete civil status, occupation, exact address, identity card number), telephone number, fax number and visible photocopy on the complete sheet of the current and / or legal identity card valid on both sides.   
2. Name and qualifications of the legal representative (complete civil status, occupation, exact address, telephone number, fax number, identity card number and condition of representation) and a visible photocopy in full sheet of the valid ID on both sides.
3. The claim of the pre-application that includes the area to be submitted and the modality desired for each property, indicating whether it is a property in possession or appointments to inscribe the property before the Public Registry. It must also indicate the following socioeconomic information: a) date of birth, b) schooling, c) number of children and d) nationality.

In case the procedure includes legal persons, the full name and the legal identification number must be indicated. La Gaceta N ° 46 - Friday, March 6, 2009 Pág 58-71           

4. Visible photocopy in full sheet on both sides of the cadastral map, with location on cartographic sheet 1: 50,000.
5. Indicate place (fax number) to receive notifications, if it were your home or office must be located within the administrative perimeter of the respective Regional Office.
6. In the case of a forest protection project on farms in possession, the applicant must attach the following to the pre-application:

• a. Certification of the cadastral plan of the property in possession or map drawn up by the Institute of Agrarian Development (IDA). Without exception, the cadastral maps that are provided must be certified by the MINAE, through the SINAC, which will attest if the property is within or outside protected wildlife areas.     
• b. Letter of protocolized sale to a public notary, with the certain date of the acquisition of the property, if such was the way of acquisition or being registered owners by the IDA, declared beneficiaries and adjudicators. In case that the possessor is an originator or does not have the transfer documents with the established formalities, he must present the affidavit of three witnesses that document in detail, the origin and the activities of the possession exercised. These statements must be recorded in a public deed. Any other document about judicial processes can be presented or also to public institutions that clearly demonstrate the possession of the land.     
• c) Affidavit, to a public notary, of the applicant holder that contains: description of the nature of the property, location by province, district, canton, hamlet or local population, indication of the full names of all the current adjoining ones, number of cadastral map, measurement, time of possession, mode of acquisition and description of possessory acts.

An extension must be requested in writing to the deadlines established by the Regional Office.

See directory

Through the figure of a Forest Regent who is responsible for certifying to FONAFIFO the state of the farm, according to technical criteria.

If a property is processed in possession, how can I find out the term that the INDER will take to approve it?

As this is an essential requirement for the PSA process, it is recommended that the interested party communicate directly with the INDER to check the status of progress in the valuation request for approval.

It is recommended to consult the College of Agricultural Engineers about the approved rates.

The applicant, must provide within a period of up to 15 business days after notification of legal approval, to the Regional Offices of the FONAFIFO the Technical Study for the respective assessment.

It must be filed to the nearest court, to the place where the crime was committed.

According to article 3 of Forest Law No. 7575, published in 1996, the services that Fonafifo can pay are the following:

"....... Those that provide forest and forest plantations and that have a direct impact on the protection and improvement of the environment .....: mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions (fixation, reduction, sequestration) , storage and absorption), water protection for urban, rural or hydroelectric use, protection of biodiversity for conservation and sustainable, scientific and pharmaceutical use, research and genetic improvement, protection of ecosystems, life forms and scenic beauty for tourism purposes and scientists.”

Article 3 of the Forestry Law you will find the definitions of forest and plantation, as shown below:

Forest: Native or autochthonous ecosystem, whether or not intervened, regenerated by natural succession or other forest techniques, occupying an area of two or more hectares, characterized by the presence of mature trees of different ages, species and variety, with one or more canopies that cover more than seventy percent (70%) of that surface and where there are more than sixty trees per hectare of fifteen or more centimeters in diameter measured at breast height (DAP).

Forest plantation: Land of one or more hectares, cultivated of one or more forest species whose main objective, but not unique, will be the production of wood.

According to article 47, the patrimony of Fonafifo can be conformed by the following contributions:

1. Financial contributions received from the State, through ordinary and extraordinary budgets of the Republic or other mechanisms.

2. Donations or credits that it receives from national and international organizations.

3. Credits obtained by the National Forestry Financing Fund, as well as funds raised through the issuance and placement of credit instruments.

4. Resources derived from the conversion of external debt and payment for environmental services that, through their management, are carried out by private or public, national or international organizations.

5. Resources from the Recovery of loans or development credits granted.

6. Financial products that are obtained from the transitory investments that are made.

7. Forty percent (40%) of the amount of income from the Wood Tax.

8. Issues of approved forest bonds and those issued in the future. With these bonds you can pay all kinds of taxes, except the forestry tax.

9. Other resources you can capture to fulfill your purposes.

The largest amount of resources for payment for environmental services comes from 3.5% of the fuel tax paid by Costa Rican citizens; plus 25% of the payment of the fee for the use of water paid by the concessionaires of water sources; on a smaller scale but of great importance, organizations and citizens contribute, which carry out, among other actions, donations, signing agreements with Fonafifo to compensate for the environmental or carbon footprint of their activities, or acquire carbon credits.

There are two reasons that justify the search of financial resources for the PSA:

The National Forestry Financing Fund, as a public institution, must be the guarantor of compliance with the legislation and the tasks entrusted to it, all of them in pursuit of social welfare. In this sense, Forest Law No. 7575, in its article 46, defines as Fonafifo's objective, the capture of financial resources, for the payment of environmental services: "....... It will also raise financing for the payment of the environmental services provided by forests, forest plantations and other activities necessary to strengthen the development of the natural resources sector, which will be established in the Regulation of this law. "

In addition, the THIRD TITLE of the Forestry Law, CHAPTER I Forest management, Article 19, establishes that "In land covered by forest, it will not be possible to change the use of land, nor establish forest plantations". However, the State Forest Administration may grant permission in those areas for specific purposes, defined in this article, for which the owner must perform the due process of request. ....... In these cases, the cutting of the forest will be limited, proportional and reasonable for the purposes stated above.

Under this limitation of change of use, imposed on the owners of the farm, the number of applications for PSA-modality forest protection increases with the years, because the owners must protect it in perpetuity.

In the INVEST section, there is a complete description of each project used by the Directorate of Development and Commercialization of Environmental Services to obtain resources for PSA financing. These projects are developed based on updated written and field information. Each project specifies the technical characteristics and the management of the projects, as well as the monitoring and verification actions.

For the purpose of the Bosque Vivo project and those of Commercialization of Carbon Units, forecasts are available for verification. In Bosque Vivo the project defines, that in addition to the monitoring of PSA contracts carried out by the Monitoring Department of Fonafifo and its Regional Offices, the verification service by a competent Organization or Professional is contracted in year 5.

In the case of global projects of UCCs, the necessary budgetary forecast has been made, allowing the Carbon Expert to be hired as soon as MINAE operates the corresponding Registry.

This Directorate has a Projects Department, with professionals specialized in forestry and methodologies. The personnel generates the base information that allows to define the price of projects or products.

 In compliance with article 63 of the Forest Law Regulation, "contracts and negotiations in general must consider all the costs of the project, as well as the monitoring and certification processes when appropriate." For these projects will not be used public funds resources from the single fuel tax and the company, the person or country with which it is contracted must provide the resources of these projects. "

Because Fonafifo is gathering information that allows it to analyze costs, the price of the products or projects can be adjusted based on duly documented technical and administrative information.

CARBON CREDITS

In the case of carbon credits, the Regulation to Forest Law 7575 establishes in article 65, that the owners of the farm, who sign the contract of PSA, give up their carbon rights to Fonafifo, during the time that the contract is current. This validity defines the PSA Program Decree that corresponds to the year of the signing of the contract.

By its own, the Directorate of Development and Commercialization has personnel to manage commercialization records, both carbon units and Forest Living certificates. In this way, the information that allows to know the current status of the project's offer, as well as the clients that are participating in the development or purchase of a project, is managed. Consequently, the Certificate drawn up after a transfer is unique and responds to a specific client.

Each certificate contains the information on the investment made and the project that responds for this investment, likewise, for procedural reasons, the officer of the Directorate must send a copy of the Project document to each client. These documents contain the detail of the current PSA contracts, the geographical location and if the client requires more detail about the contracts, the person can contact the professional responsible for the technical document.

It must also emphasize to each organization or interested person, that the process of capturing and developing projects is based on PSA contracts that are actively in force, for this reason, the Projects Department uses these contracts to generate an offer.

BOSQUE VIVO CERTIFICATES

These projects are developed for a specific geographical area, for this reason, the record clearly shows the name of the investor in PSA and links it directly with the project.

AGREEMENTS

In the case of agreements for the financing of PSA, it is required to finance a minimum of 100 hectares of PSA in some form, or the establishment of at least 60,000 trees in agroforestry systems, so that the Directorate of Environmental Services can provide traceability to the financier, associating the resource source with the specific PSA contracts.

Due to the process required to secure a certificate issued for a specific client, and to protect the PSA Program, Fonafifo has been developing a series of mechanisms that seek to facilitate commercialization, and avoid the entry of resources of dubious origin.

For the process of carbon footprint compensation, an application is available, through which greenhouse gas emissions are calculated. This application uses the official emission factors of Costa Rica, available on the web page of the Meteorological Institute (IMN). This calculator has been reviewed by the Directorate of Climate Change and the IMN. This application is linked to a secure system, which allows to purchase units online.

Both with Carbon Units and with Bosque Vivo, Fonafifo must coordinate with the client the preparation of the certificate. The data must be verified by each officer of the Development and Commercialization Department responsible for the negotiation. In case the organization or person requires it, the Management prepares proforma invoices on request and coordinates with the Financial Department the preparation of certificates of deposit or certifications.

In accordance with Article 64 of the Regulation to Forest Law 7575, "The National Fund for Forest Financing is authorized to negotiate in the agreements or contracts for the purchase and sale of environmental services, a percentage of administrative and technical expenses according to the nature of the obligations acquired in them.  "For this reason, the documents that support each project specify the percentage that will be reserved to attend technical or administrative obligations.

There are special cases, such as the Domestic Carbon Market, which in its Decree defines the contracts that must be made to register the projects of the Costa Rican Carbon Units.

Copy of each project, such as Bosque Vivo and Carbon Credits, must be delivered to the client, in digital form, by the official of the Development and Commercialization Department that makes the contact, and the most updated version is available in the INVEST section.

The impacts of this program can be seen to a large extent, through the recovery of forest cover, which in the 1980s came to 21%, and now it is greater than 53%. This coverage is located in different life zones of Costa Rica, which integrate multiple ecosystems, thus favoring species adapted to different climates and conditions, which have been affected by the deforestation processes of previous eras.

 The General Comptroller of the Republic, in its audit reports, has identified a series of environmental and social impacts, these reports are available on its website.

  Also in the PSA address and specifically in PSA statistics, you will find data on sowing native trees, or recovery of areas classified as biological corridors, or of sites located in conservation gaps defined by the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC), in addition to the number of beneficiaries, distribution by sex, etc.

In the case of specific projects, such is the case of Bosque Vivo, the PSA Program may provide information on the contracts signed in these geographical areas.

 About the projects to commercialize carbon units, it must be said that the money is not directed to a specific site, but to cover the PSA's demand to continue protecting the natural heritage of Costa Rica.

All investors must bear in mind that PSA contracts are signed with owners of farms, which can be individuals or companies. In the case of indigenous territories, it is signed with the Development Association, who agrees to define and implement the application of financial resources.

Due to the objectives we attend and the interest in environmental improvement, the staff of the Development and Marketing Department is available to provide guidance and information, which does not create a conflict of interest. For example, Fonafifo can give explanations to interested people about methodologies or regulations related to the Domestic Carbon Market, but can not measure the carbon footprint of any company, nor measure the carbon fixed in private forestry projects.

We have specialized personnel, know about international methodologies, which is in the willingness to share information.

To obtain extensive and detailed information, please contact the Directorate of Environmental Services, responsible for the management of the Program.

For more information or detail please contact: croldan@fonafifo.go.cr

See Management Reports

The cost of the Unit is US $ 7.5 per ton of carbon equivalent.

See GEI Compensation Units.

On the website of the Climate Change Directorate you can find information to apply to the country brand (See Climate Change)

For the purpose of the inventory of an organization or company, in accordance with the regulations, it is recommended to review the GEI Protocol, to know the methodology to prepare the greenhouse gas inventory of your company.

Once you have the inventory prepared, you must hire the verification service of your company's inventory (See)

Finally, if you buy carbon credits to offset the emissions of your inventory, you can contact Dra. Carmen Roldán Chacón, Development and Commercialization Director at croldan@fonafifo.go.cr or at extension 2545-3539.

In Fonafifo, the Costa Rican compensation units for the domestic market currently have a price of US $ 7.5 per carbon credit, which corresponds to one tonne of CO2 equivalent.

In the international market there are projects with other prices, this is important in case the company exports, because it may need international credits. You can search for information in Ecosystem Market Place.

The Costa Rican Compensation Units (UCC’s) correspond to tons of carbon equivalent, which companies, organizations or individuals use to offset the greenhouse gas (GEI) emissions they produce through their productive activities; The UCC's are tons of carbon dioxide that are fixed in the trees developed in forestry activities, such as reforestation, natural regeneration and agroforestry systems, in their growth process.

In the case of a company that carries out its inventory, according to the standard INTE 14064-1: 2011, it must carry out actions to reduce GEI emissions, once the company has made the reduction plan, tons of carbon dioxide that these have not been able to reduce through various actions, must compensate them through UCC's, this in order to obtain the brand C-Neutrality country. This is a completely voluntary program, as well as the purchase of these UCC's. So far Fonafifo is the only authorized institution for the sale of UCC's until the domestic carbon market has not been developed nationally.

100% of the money collected through the sale of UCC's is used to finance the Payment for Environmental Services Program (PSA) that is carried out by Fonafifo. On Fonafifo's website, there is a link to a carbon calculator developed by Fonafifo for companies and individuals to calculate their carbon footprint and make their compensations online.

A company or person wishing to acquire UCCs to offset their GEI emissions must send an email with the amount of tons they wish to compensate, a quote is sent to them with the amount corresponding to their compensation, which details the bank accounts to which they can make their deposit, once they have proof of payment they should send it scanned and they are proceeded to make a certificate with the amount of UCC's purchased.

In summary, this is how the Costa Rican Compensation Units work.

The transformation can be done in general form in the following way:

Initially, the first thing that is recommended is to calculate the volume in the international system (in cubic meters) of the wood to be quantified and if there were several species, do so by species. The inches is a commercial measure, which can lead to a significant error in the estimate.

Once the volume is determined, the density of the wood (kg/m3) of each species can be used to obtain the biomass (amount of matter without water) present in that volume. The biomass is in Kg, so to obtain tons, the result must be divided by 1000.

Then, the biomass obtained in tons is multiplied by 0.47 (0.5 is also accepted), which is the carbon fraction in the wood biomass. The result is multiplied by the factor 44/12, to transform the amount of Carbon into tons of CO2 equivalents.

If a very general idea is required, the method described works well, but if a certain degree of precision is required, it is advisable to determine in the laboratory, the carbon content from representative samples.

Additionally, the following should be considered:

1. The inches, as they are generally used in the market, can be inch sawn, in logs or standing, so defining where the wood is important to improve estimates. In this previous case it was assumed that it was sawn wood.
2. The equivalent CO2 estimate of standing timber requires a different process than logs or sawn timber. The wood in logs or sawn the volume can be determined more adequately (depending on the level of detail of the person measuring and the precision of the instruments used). In the case of standing timber, there are allometric equations to calculate biomass based on the measurement of DAP (diameter at chest height) and the total height of the tree, or obtaining the standing volume (by the same DAP variables and the total height) and transforming it into biomass with biomass expansion factors and the density of the wood of each species. Also, this biomass (in tons) is transformed into CO2 equivalent multiplied by the carbon fraction (0.47 - 0.5) and the factor 44/12.
3. The species and maturity of the trees that the wood comes from, affects the density of the wood. At the literature level there are average values, but they can lead to a significant error during the estimation if they do not adequately correspond to the measured wood.
4. The amount of water can affect the volume estimate. Thus, very wet wood can be oversized.

See File procedure