The Ecolaboratory

The Ecolaboratory

Author: Robert Fletcher

Publisher: University of Arizona Press

Published: 2020-03-17

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 081654011X

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Despite its tiny size and seeming marginality to world affairs, the Central American republic of Costa Rica has long been considered an important site for experimentation in cutting-edge environmental policy. From protected area management to ecotourism to payment for environmental services (PES) and beyond, for the past half-century the country has successfully positioned itself at the forefront of novel trends in environmental governance and sustainable development. Yet the increasingly urgent dilemma of how to achieve equitable economic development in a world of ecosystem decline and climate change presents new challenges, testing Costa Rica’s ability to remain a leader in innovative environmental governance. This book explores these challenges, how Costa Rica is responding to them, and the lessons this holds for current and future trends regarding environmental governance and sustainable development. It provides the first comprehensive assessment of successes and challenges as they play out in a variety of sectors, including agricultural development, biodiversity conservation, water management, resource extraction, and climate change policy. By framing Costa Rica as an “ecolaboratory,” the contributors in this volume examine the lessons learned and offer a path for the future of sustainable development research and policy in Central America and beyond.


Conservation Policies for Agricultural Biodiversity

Conservation Policies for Agricultural Biodiversity

Author: Lekha Laxman

Publisher: Woodhead Publishing

Published: 2023-08-16

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 0128214589

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Conservation Policies for Agricultural Biodiversity: A Comparative Study of Laws and Policies focuses on the challenge of securing the ecological future of the planet and its inhabitants by exploring the Convention of Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing and WTO laws, such as SPSS, TBT GATT. This book demonstrates how the urgent problem of biodiversity loss can be addressed by challenging notions of national self-interest and security for the purpose of implementing policies that will benefit humanity and, more importantly, ensure the future of our planet. - Delves into the current approaches adopted in the framework of global environmental governance - Investigates the origins, operations and effects of legal regimes, policies and practices related to the conservation of biodiversity - Presents a comparative study of laws and policies, providing an in-depth understanding of the factors behind the lack of success in conserving agricultural biodiversity


The Green Republic

The Green Republic

Author: Sterling Evans

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2010-06-28

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 0292789289

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With over 25 percent of its land set aside in national parks and other protected areas, Costa Rica is renowned worldwide as "the green republic." In this very readable history of conservation in Costa Rica, Sterling Evans explores the establishment of the country's national park system as a response to the rapid destruction of its tropical ecosystems due to the expansion of export-related agriculture. Drawing on interviews with key players in the conservation movement, as well as archival research, Evans traces the emergence of a conservation ethic among Costa Ricans and the tangible forms it has taken. In Part I, he describes the development of the national park system and "the grand contradiction" that conservation occurred simultaneously with massive deforestation in unprotected areas. In Part II, he examines other aspects of Costa Rica's conservation experience, including the important roles played by environmental education and nongovernmental organizations, campesino and indigenous movements, ecotourism, and the work of the National Biodiversity Institute.


Biodiversity Conservation in Costa Rica

Biodiversity Conservation in Costa Rica

Author: Gordon W. Frankie

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2004-02-06

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 0520241037

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Annotation A collection of papers regarding the conservation of Costa Rica's tropical dry forest, which is disappearing more rapidly than its rain forest, due to ease of conversion to agriculture.


OECD Environmental Performance Reviews: Costa Rica 2023

OECD Environmental Performance Reviews: Costa Rica 2023

Author: OECD

Publisher: OECD Publishing

Published: 2023-10-06

Total Pages: 151

ISBN-13: 9264704256

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A megadiverse county, Costa Rica is known globally for its success in reversing deforestation and pursuing a growth model based on the sustainable use of its environmental resources. However, energy use and related greenhouse gas emissions increased in the last decade.


Regional Integration, Development, and Governance in Mesoamerica

Regional Integration, Development, and Governance in Mesoamerica

Author: Alina Gamboa

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2019-09-13

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 3030253503

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This book provides an overview of governance and development in the Mesoamerican Region (MAR), the design and scope of the Plan Puebla Panamá (PPP), its relationship to pre-existing regional organisms and its transformation into Proyecto Mesoamérica. The PPP was introduced as a holistic project that would reverse the cycles of poverty in Mesoamerica. However, the plan incited huge opposition from many groups within Mesoamerica, and throughout its duration few of its objectives were met. The author analyses the plan and describes the regional setting and precursors, as well as the US policy towards the Mesoamerican countries. Using this approach with an analysis of governance in Mesoamerica, this monograph shows a more complete picture of why this ambitious development project did not reach its goals and draws applicable insights to other regions where governance is complex.


The Role of Local Benefits in Global Environmental Programs

The Role of Local Benefits in Global Environmental Programs

Author:

Publisher: GEF Evaluation Office

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 1933992018

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This study analyzes the interrelationship between local benefits and global environment benefits in the Global Environment Facility (GEF) strategies and projects in order to: Enhance GEF policies, strategies, and project design and implementation so these can effectively promote the potential for local gains in those global environmental programs where actors need to be mobilized for long-term support of sound environmental management, costs incurred by local communities for supplying global environmental goods need to be reduced, and possible negative impacts need to be ameliorated. Strengthen GEF monitoring and evaluation policies and processes to develop indicators for, and enhance the tracking of, local benefits and negative impacts. Expand the body of existing operational knowledge of good practices and experiences germane to pursuing global environmental issues and of constraints or fallacies to be avoided in operations. Disseminate widely the most valuable lessons of existing experience and show how these lessons can be implemented in future GEF operations.