INTERNATIONAL TROPICAL TIMBER ORGANIZATION ITTO PROJECT PROPOSAL MASTER PLAN FOR THE REPOSITIONING OF FOREST MANAGEMENT AS A TITLE COMPETITIVE LAND USE IN THE AGROFORESTRY LANDSCAPE OF THE NORTHERN REGION OF COSTA RICA SERIAL NUMBER PD 781/15 Rev.3 (F) COMMITTEE REFORESTATION AND FOREST MANAGEMENT SUBMITTED BY GOVERNMENT OF COSTA RICA ORIGINAL LANGUAGE SPANISH SUMMARY Deforestation, illegal logging and poverty still prevail in the rural areas of Costa Rica. The reasons and stakeholders are numerous; however, despite the fact that small producers are also considered to be agents of change in the country's agroforestry landscape, their livelihoods are more dependent on forest goods and services. Furthermore, sustainable forest management (SFM) has emerged as a practical tool to assist in forest conservation (preventing deforestation and illegal logging) while also generating the income needed to satisfy local producers' needs (contributing to poverty alleviation). Producers are staunchly against adopting SFM on their farms; in fact, they prefer to devote their lands to agriculture or livestock, and where there is forest on their lands, they prefer to receive the Payment for Environmental Services (PES) under the conservation mode rather than implementing SFM. Clearly, the current SFM scheme promoted by NGOs and the State Forest Administration (AFE) is not attractive enough for most producers. Although SFM is promoted as a viable alternative to improve forest competitiveness when compared with other alternative land uses, forest owners face serious problems, including compliance with AFE's legal requirements when they apply for logging permits. Furthermore, cost/benefit ratios for SFM are far from being attractive for local producers, when compared with agriculture and/or livestock, and more recently, with imported timber. In this context, there is a need to work on forest revaluation through the design and implementation of a Master Plan that seeks to reposition SFM as a competitive type of land use in the agroforestry landscape of the Northern Region of Costa Rica. The objective of the project is to provide a cooperation framework for action at the regional level, that deals with the ecologic, social, economic and governance aspects of SFM. To this end, the project will work on three components: first, assisting forest producers in the Northern Region to market SFM products advantageously; second, implementing an applied research program on SFM to support AFE; and third, promoting and training on SFM as an alternative to improve forest competitiveness within the agroforestry landscape. EXECUTING AGENCY: FOREST DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION ASSOCIATION OF SAN CARLOS (CODEFORSA) COLLABORATING AGENCIES INSTITUTE FOR FOREST RESEARCH AND SERVICES (INISEFOR) AT THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF COSTA RICA (UNA), FOREST FINANCE FUND (FONAFIFO) DURATION: 36 MONTHS APPROXIMATE STARTING DATE UPON APPROVAL BUDGET AND PROPOSED SOURCES OF FUNDING: Source Contribution in US$ ITTO 466,893 INISEFOR-UNA 72,000 CODEFORSA 169,200 TOTAL 708,093 TABLE OF CONTENTS PART 1. PROJECT CONTEXT 5 1.1 Origin 5 1.2 Relevance 5 1.2.1 Conformity with ITTO’s objectives and priorities 5 1.2.2 Relevance to Costa Rica's policies 6 1.3 Target area 6 1.3.1 Geographic location 6 1.3.2 Social, cultural, economic and environmental aspects 7 1.3.3 The situation of the Almond Tree (logging ban) 7 1.4 Expected outcomes at project completion 8 PART 2. PROJECT RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES 9 2.1 Rationale 9 2.1.2 Stakeholder analysis 10 Table 1. Stakeholder analysis Northern Region, Costa Rica. 11 2.1.3 Problem analysis 11 2.1.4 Objectives tree 14 2.1.5 Logical framework matrix 15 2.2 Objectives 17 2.2.1 Development objectives and impact indicators: 17 2.2.2 Specific objective and outcome indicators 17 3.1 Outputs and activities 18 3.1.1 List of activities 20 3.2 Approaches and methods 21 3.3 Work plan 21 3.4 Budget 25 3.4.1 Master budget 26 3.4.2 Consolidated budget by component 34 3.4.3 ITTO budget by component 35 3.4.4 Executing agency budget by component 36 3.5 Assumptions, risks, sustainability 36 3.5.1 Assumptions and risks 36 3.5.2 Sustainability 38 PART 4. Implementation arrangements 40 4.1. Organization structure and stakeholder involvement mechanisms. 40 4.1.1 Executing agency and partners 40 4.1.2 Project management team 40 4.1.3 Project Steering Committee 41 4.1.4 Stakeholder involvement mechanisms 42 4.3 Dissemination and mainstreaming of project experiences 46 4.3.1 Dissemination of project outcomes 46 4.3.2 Mainstreaming of project learning 46 5. References 47 Annex 1. Profile of the Executing Agency 48 Annex 2. COFALC-FAO’s recognition of excellence of CODEFORSA members 50 Annex 3: Curricula vitae of personnel provided by the executing agency 51 Annex 4. Profile of collaborating agencies 53 Annex 5. Consultation workshops – Lists of participants and images 57 Annex 6. Income generated under harvesting and non-harvesting management plans for Almendro 60 Annex 7. Response to 50th ITTO Expert Panel general assessment and specific recommendations 61 Annex 8: Response to 52nd ITTO Expert Panel general assessment and specific recommendations 63 Annex 9. Terms of reference for the key staff provided by the executing agency 64 Annex 10: Additional information on the management of the Permanent Sample Plots 68 Annex 11. Response to the general assessment and specific recommendations of the 53rd Expert Panel for the Technical Appraisal of Project Proposals 72 2 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS CODEFORSA Asociación Comisión de Desarrollo Forestal de San Carlos (San Carlos Forest Development Commission Association) INISEFOR Instituto de Investigación y Servicios Forestales (Institute for Forest Research and Services) UNA Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica (National University of Costa Rica) FONAFIFO Fondo de Financiamiento Forestal (Forest Finance Fund) SINAC Sistema Nacional de Áreas de Conservación (National Conservation Area System) NR Northern Region SFM Sustainable forest management PES Payment for environmental services AFE Administración Forestal del Estado (State Forest Administration) DFID Department for International Development PSP Permanent sample plot CATIE Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (Tropical Agricultural Center for Research and Higher Education) ONF Oficina Nacional Forestal (National Forest Office) REDD+ Reduced greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation PNDF Plan Nacional de Desarrollo Forestal (National Forest Development Plan) INF Inventario Nacional Forestal (National Forest Inventory) IDS Índice de Desarrollo Social (Social Development Index) COSEFORMA Cooperación de los Sectores Forestal y Maderero (Forest and Timber Sectors Cooperation) FUNDECOR Fundación para el Desarrollo de la Cordillera Volcánica Central (Foundation for the Development of the Central Volcanic Range) GMF Gerente de Manejo Forestal – AFE (AFE Forest Management Director) GTZ Deutsche GesellschaftfürTechnischeZusammenarbeit (Technical German Cooperation Agency) MINAE Ministerio de Ambiente y Energía (Ministry of the Environment and Energy) MIDEPLAN Ministerio de Planificación Nacional y Política Económica (Ministry of National Planning and Economic Policy) PMIBN Programa Manejo Integral de Bosque Natural (Integrated Management Programme for Natural Forests) 3 Figure 1. Map of project area: Northern Region of Costa Rica 4 PART 1. PROJECT CONTEXT 1.1 Origin In 1991 the change of land use in Costa Rica was officially banned, and since then involved sectors have come to an agreement to improve procedures to facilitate access to forest resources. At that time, forest use was based on logging the best and most valuable trees; there was neither planning nor any technical support, and permits were granted with no control from the State; this caused forest destruction in up to 56%. There was no field experience to show which the most suitable techniques were to utilize forest resources without causing their decline. As a result, and with the intention of combating over-logging of forests at the time, several forest management projects were established in the Northern Region. The projects sought to generate data to help improve forest use regulation. One of such projects was implemented by CODEFORSA in 1991-1998 with financial support from the UK's Department of International Development (DFID), to establish ten forest management and demonstration units and 34 permanent sample plots (PSP). Forest census and topographic surveys were carried out in these units as planning tools, while various levels of intensity of use were trialled; all these activities were validated in the field through PSP experiments (Méndez, 2003). Also, CODEFORSA, with support from academic institutions such as the Tropical Agricultural Centre for Research and Education (CATIE), used their research units to apply post-harvest silvicultural treatments; the practical outcome of these activities was the guide to diagnostic sampling and silvicultural treatment prescription, published in 1994. As the various development projects progressed, some weaknesses in the current management system were corrected. Procedures for pre-harvest inventory and performance regulation were strengthened in order to minimise the impact of forest utilisation and to prevent excessive logging of more valuable species. Another achievement was the change from a whole-of-stand base (60% of trade volume above the minimum logging diameter) to a species base (60% of trade volume for each species above the minimum