Interview with the Minister of Environment and Energy of Costa Rica

Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, Minister of Environment & Energy of CR

Carlos Manuel Rodríguez is currently serving his second term as the Minister of Environment and Energy. Within the environmental sector, he stands out as pioneer in the development of the Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES), Coordinating Professor of the training course on Environmental Policy, Legal Advisor to organisations such as the Center of Tropical Sciences (CCT), National Institute of Biodiversity (INBIO), Organisation of Tropical Studies (OET) and the Foundation of National Parks (FPN) (1).

As the Minister of Environment, he managed to curb logging and deforestation trends to achieve a national net growth of forested areas through natural regeneration and reforestation. He is internationally recognised for promoting the concept of identifying and capturing the economic value of standing forests within protected areas, private forests, and Indian reserves (2).

Carlos Manuel Rodriguez answers some questions about the commitment of Costa Rica to its environment:

Why is Costa Rica so conscious about its environment and resources?

"For us, it´s in our DNA, we grow up close to the beaches, close to the rivers, close to the waterfalls, we grow up admiring our jaguars, our tapirs, our macaws and we feel very protective about them. For us, our resources were given by our forefathers and it is for us to give to our children. Our economy revolves around tourism, and for us as a country to visualize the benefits of conservation comes easy, people come here in huge numbers every year to disconnect from concrete and the agitation of big cities but most important tourists come here to connect with nature and see live the beauty of it. We have beautiful mountains, impressive valleys, gorgeous beaches and a vast variety of flora and fauna, that in return becomes very productive for our economy and our jobs. We believe strongly in the concept of sustainable development."

Among all the new green policies Costa Rica has set to meet by 2025, what do you think are the most ambitious? And why? 

"Definitely the most ambitious one is our National De-carbonization Plan, which intends not only to be carbon neutral but to be carbon negative by 2050. This plan is so ambitious that pretends to change a lot of our ways of life into greener-healthier practices in several areas such as construction, how we grow crops, transportation among others. With these policies, we want to restore our rivers and creeks to make them fishable and swimmable again, we intend to change our consumption of fossil fuels practices into cleaner and renewable sources, even though we are producing 99% of our energy on renewable sources, we want to go to 100%. And we want to create an effect in the health of the general population as well, making our cities more walkable and promoting the use of alternative transportation methods, which we are already putting in action."

What are the main strengths of Costa Rica's government protecting its environment? And weaknesses? 

"The main strengths in the current administration is the openness to see and believe that we can achieve development in greener practices overall, to believe we can de-carbonize our ways of life and change paradigms of production. Biggest weaknesses, I think is bureaucracy, as any other government, dealing with bureaucracy is hard and slow so we cannot advance as fast as we wanted."

(1) Minister Profile MINAE

(2) A better Tomorrow Interview