Costa Rica officially joined the IMFN on December 5, 2003, bringing the total number of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean Model Forest Network to four. The 150 000 hectare Rio Reventazón watershed area, the site of the newest Model Forest, encompasses three per cent of Costa Rica’s total land base and is the 10th model forest in the region.

The official signing ceremony by the Minister for the Environment and Energy, Mr Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, took place in Cartago City outside of San José. IMFNS Executive Director, Peter Besseau, and Juan Carlos Collarte, Chair of the RMFC-LAC, attended the ceremony.

“With this model forest we are talking more about people than trees, communities rather than groups, and accumulated knowledge more than financing,” said Collarte. “It is a manner of speaking to the people with the limited natural resources we have.”

The Reventazón Model Forest (RMF) will be administered by the Ministry of Energy and the Environment (National System of Conservation Areas), the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Centre (CATIE), the Rio Reventazón Watershed Management Unit (UMCRE), as well as all of those institutions currently involved or with investment in the area.

For more information, please visit the CATIE web site.