June 5, Geneva – Today, as the World celebrates International Environment Day, Costa Rica officially joined the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI) as a signatory to the CAFI Interministerial Declaration.

For several decades, Costa Rica has been a global leader in preventing deforestation—an essential component in the fight against climate change. Remarkably, the country has reversed deforestation trends and increased its forest cover from 22% to 58% over the past 25 years, all while promoting social and economic development.

Upon signing the CAFI Declaration, H.E. Christian Guillermet Fernández, Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the United Nations in Geneva, declared:

“No country can tackle the major challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, and ecosystem degradation alone. This is why we enthusiastically welcome CAFI’s invitation to join the initiative as a South-South partner—a concrete and transformative example of cooperation among countries in tropical forest basins.”

Costa Rica’s success in forest conservation is largely attributed to its Payment for Environmental Services (PES) scheme—a performance-based mechanism that has proven instrumental in aligning local income generation with forest protection. The six Central African countries supported by CAFI stand to benefit greatly from Costa Rica’s deep expertise in implementing and scaling such mechanisms

Costa Rica joins CAFI at a pivotal time, as Central African countries work to make PES a cornerstone of their climate and development financing. These nations have developed national roadmaps toward COP30 in Belém, Brazil, launched cutting-edge tools to design and manage PES systems, and are piloting standardized approaches across the region. While development needs and priorities vary among CAFI’s partner countries, this new partnership with Costa Rica holds significant potential for mutual learning and knowledge exchange.

This collaboration comes in the wake of alarming 2024 data indicating increased forest loss globally—and heightened forest degradation in Central Africa in particular.

“At a time when multilateral cooperation is questioned, Costa Rica’s demonstration of solidarity with Central African countries, in the realm performance-based finance, sends a strong and hopeful signal”, Berta Pesti, Head of the CAFI Secretariat, concluded.