Assessing the effects of new and old conservation policies in Costa Rica

Cost[a] Rica’s national conservation policy was recast into SINAC (National System of Conservation Areas) about a decade ago (World Bank 2000). Major changes in the new policies include pairing the management of biodiversity and the management of sustainable development and resource use (SINAC website, 2007). This change sparked criticism and many worried that the shift might leave policy in favor of development instead of sheer protection for biodiversity. SINAC also changed the administrative structure of conservation management and condensed seventy- eight different territories into eleven conservation areas spanning all of Costa Rica’s territory (Evans 1999). Recent studies show that the state of conservation policy and its effectiveness in the country is less an effect of new policies than it is the way funding travels between the central government and Conservation Areas. These areas generate enough money to sustain the country’s conservation goals but the central government does not return enough of the generated revenue for these goals to be realized. La política nacional de la conservación en Costa Rica fue modificada en SINAC (Sistema Nacional de Areas de Conservación) hace aproximadamente una década (Banco Mundial 2000). Cambios importantes en las nuevas políticas incluyen el emparejamiento del manejo de la biodiversidad, el manejo del desarrollo sostenible y el uso del recurso (sitio en la web del SINAC, 2007). Este cambio desato críticas y muchos se preocuparon que el cambio pudiera dejar la política a favor del desarrollo en vez de la protección de la biodiversidad. El SINAC también cambio la estructura administrativa del manejo de la conservación y condensó setenta y ocho diversos territorios en once áreas de conservación que atravesaban todo el territorio de Costa Rica (Evans 1999).https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/tropical_ecology/1046/thumbnail.jp