Costa Rica to update its National Biodiversity Strategy

San Jose, Costa Rica, August 6, 2013 (IICA). Costa Rica has taken the first step in updating its National Biodiversity Strategy (ENB) for 2014-2020, a process being supported by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA). This first step is an assessment of the current situation regarding biodiversity in the country, including those genetic resources used in agriculture to produce food and raw materials.

The Deputy Minister of Environment and Energy, Ana Lorena Guevara, explained that the strategy is needed if Costa Rica is to honor international commitments the country assumed when it ratified the Agreement on Biological Diversitywhose three main goals are the conservation of biodiversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits from the use of genetic resources.

“We have been steadily losing agricultural biodiversity. Therefore, we believe that, as part of the process of updating the ENB, we must plan specific actions intended to conserve plant and animal genetic resources, if we are to contribute to feeding the world,” she said.

The IICA Representative in Costa Rica, Miguel Angel Arvelo, recalled that for more than a decade the Institute has been promoting research on the relationship between agriculture and natural resources, a topic of growing importance and one to which countries are paying greater attention.

“Costa Rica is one of the first countries to attempt to honor its commitments related to the conservation of biodiversity and, with support from IICA, Costa Rica can share that experience with the other countries of the Americas,” he said.

The process is being implemented by UNDP with the support of GEF. The strategy is being developed in consultation with a number of sectors, a process facilitated by the IICA Office in Costa Rica.

According to Marta Liliana Jimenez, Executive Director of the Technical Office of the National Commission for the Management of Biodiversity (CONAGEBio), the process of updating the ENB has three stages: the assessment of the current situation regarding biodiversity, and the corresponding regulatory framework; the establishment of a policy and plan of action for implementing the strategy; and the development of mechanisms to exchange information and conduct economic studies of the environmental services provided by ecosystems.

One of the goals of the ENB is to ensure the inclusion, in policies on national planning, of actions that will enable the country to comply with the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity (2011-2020) and the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity (2011-2020), adopted by the Conference of the Parties to the Agreement on Biological Diversity in Japan in 2010.

“As part of the Aichi Targets, Costa Rica must have the ENB ready by 2015, and an effective and participatory plan of action,” Jimenez added.

In Costa Rica, coordination of efforts to fulfill these commitments is the responsibility of CONAGEBio and the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC), both under the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE).

Jimenez reported that the assessment of biodiversity being conducted to update the ENB has revealed the identification of 5,000 new species in Costa Rica from2011 to 2013.

In this country, the growth of the human population, changes in their use and consumption of resources, contamination, the loss of habitat, overexploitation, climate variability and change and the invasion of exotic species pose the greatest threat to biodiversity, according to the assessment.

For further information: 
miguel.arvelo@iica.int