SEOUL – October 14, 2016 – The President of the Republic of Costa Rica, Luis Guillermo Solís Rivera, met yesterday with Mahua Acharya, GGGI’s Assistant Director-General and Head of the Investment and Policy Solutions Division , during the President’s recent visit to Seoul, Republic of Korea.

As one of the founding members of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), Costa Rica’s government is continuing its collaboration with the institute to develop finance mechanisms that promote sustainable practices in the land use and forestry sector in the country. The Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE), and Forestry Financing Fund (FONAFIFO), are working together with GGGI to develop national finance vehicles  such as the the country’s recently established Environment Bank Foundation (FUNBAM).

In collaboration with FUNBAM, GGGI will work to identify innovative financing mechanisms and develop projects for their eventual financing, with plans for developing and implementing identified projects being discussed next year.

Benefitting from Costa Rica’s leadership position on ‘payment for ecosystem services’ (PES), GGGI has been working on a knowledge sharing program where other countries in the GGGI membership can benefit from their experiences. The success of Costa Rica’s payment for ecosystem services  program was highlighted in a forthcoming GGGI policy analysis publication titled Bridging the Policy and Investment Gap for Payment for Ecosystem Services: Learning from Costa Rican Experience and Roads Ahead.

In the report, GGGI analyzes Costa Rica’s innovative PES scheme called “Pago por Servicios Ambientales”, which along with a Forestry Law, led to a dramatic increase in Costa Rica’s forest cover from less than 30% in the 1980s to 54% of its territory today.

Emphasizing the significance of their collaboration, Mahua Acharya said, “The PES program in the Republic of Costa Rica is a model for the world and shows the potential of green growth. In partnership with the Republic of Costa Rica, GGGI has the ability to share knowledge from the Costa Rican experience in sustainable land use management with our other member countries around the world.”

About the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI)

Based in Seoul, GGGI is an intergovernmental organization founded to support and promote green growth. The organization partners with countries to help them build economies that grow strongly, are more efficient and sustainable in the use of natural resources, less carbon intensive, and more resilient to climate change. GGGI works with countries around the world, building their capacity and working collaboratively on green growth policies that can impact the lives of millions. To learn more about GGGI, see https://gggi.org and visit us on Facebook and Twitter.

Notes to the Editor:

NFVs represent a means to streamline finances, procedures, coordination, and costs through a single mechanism that increases access to international climate finance from a combination public, private, bilateral, and other sources of capital.

Contact:

Mr. Darren Karjama

T: +82 70 7117 9966

M: +82 10 9530 9995

E: darren.karjama@gggi.org