Outpoll | Costa Rica's rainforests regrow despite global deforestation trend.

Scienceclimate scienceEnvironmental Policy

While the world watches its ancient forests burn and fall, a small Central American nation is scripting a different story. Costa Rica’s rainforests are regrowing, a hard-won victory against a global tide of deforestation.This isn't accidental; it's the result of a radical, decades-long policy pivot that fundamentally changed how a country values its land. In the late 20th century, Costa Rica had one of the world's highest deforestation rates, driven by subsidies for cattle ranching that turned lush canopy into pasture.The turnaround began in the 1990s with the pioneering Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) program. This system pays landowners—from small farmers to large holders—to keep forests standing, monetizing the invisible work trees do: storing carbon, filtering water, and harboring biodiversity.It flipped the economic script, making conservation more profitable than clearance. The results are visible from the air: forest cover has doubled from a low of around 25% to over 50% today.This regrowth has become the bedrock of a thriving ecotourism economy, proving that environmental stewardship and economic vitality can be symbiotic. However, the model faces severe stress tests.Climate change is bringing more intense droughts and heightened fire risk to these recovering ecosystems, threatening to undo progress. Experts like Dr.David Barton Bray, who has studied the program extensively, warn that its success hinges on strong, transparent governance and consistent long-term funding—conditions difficult to replicate in nations with weaker institutions. Costa Rica’s story is thus a powerful but fragile blueprint, a living lab showing that reversing environmental degradation is possible, but it requires a sustained, societal commitment to valuing nature not as an obstacle to development, but as its very foundation.

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