CIAO DATE: 06/02

Lessons on Sustainable Development from Costa Rica's Forests

Costa Rica's innovative efforts to implement a policy of sustainable development raise a number of questions. What trade-offs have the forest and biodiversity conservation policies of the 1990s generated with respect to the different components of sustainable development? Are the measures adopted likely to be successful? How were those policy choices made? By what means can the components of sustainable development that have been neglected be incorporated, especially those related to livelihood? This paper addresses these questions by analyzing Costa Rican forest policy, one of that nation's most sharply contested environmental issue areas.

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