Investors Sought For
‘Costa Rica Forever’
Conservation Initiative
(Infocom) — During the
recent visit by Costa
Rican President Oscar
Arias to the United
Nations in New York,
Mark Linden, of the
Linden Trust for
Conservation, invited
the pro-environment
leader to share with
investors seeking to
support initiatives for
preserving nature.
One of those initiatives
is “Costa Rica por
Siempre” (Costa Rica
Forever), which seeks to
expand and finance in
the long term the
country’s protected
areas, both terrestrials
and maritime, in an
effort to make Costa
Rica the first nation to
meet the UN’s objectives
for protected areas. The
Protected Areas Work
Program of the United
Nations Convention on
Biological Diversity has
established
chronological goals for
each country, with the
goal of helping
stabilize and guarantee
protection of the
planet’sbiodiversity.
“Sometimes I find myself
away from home, but
among friends,” Arias
said in New York last
week. “That’s the case
tonight, among all of
you who are working to
save the planet,
regardless of where we
live, we are never
strangers. We area
allies in a great fight,
perhaps humanity’s
greatest challenge. We
are partners in an
effort to protect our
world for future
generations. We are not
commanders of war, but
commanders of peace, the
peace we are seeking
with the Earth, our
mission to end the war
on nature.”
Costa Rica is seeking
support from
environmental
organizations to help
the government
consolidate protected
areas and improve its
capabilities, securing
financial support for
the protected areas
system in an amount much
higher than what’s
currently available.
The Linden Trust has
pledged to donate $1
million to kick off the
Costa Rica Forever
initiative to guarantee
that national parks will
have the necessary
resources to preserve
their environment and
biodiversity.
The effort will also
strengthen Costa Rica’s
leadership in and
commitments to
environmental
protection, in a drive
to motivate individual
donors, foundations and
other sources of
international financing.
These external funds are
sought to significantly
contribute to bridge the
gap in financing for
sustainability efforts,
creating a permanent
mechanism for funding
the protection of nature
preserves.
Costa Rica is currently
negotiating an agreement
with three potential
collaborators: the
Nature Conservancy, the
Gordon and Betty Moore
Foundation, and the
Linden Trust. These
entities would help the
Costa Rican government
consolidate protected
areas and improvement
their management.
Such agreement would
secure financial support
for the protected areas
system and for
implementation of a
campaign to collect
additional funds to
match governmental
support for
sustainability.
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