The Dynamics of Deforestation and the Supply of Carbon Sequestration: Illustrative Results from Costa Rica

Developing countries around the world face the dual challenge of speeding up economic growth and slowing down environmental degradation, two objectives that are perceived to be in direct conflict.

The chapters in this volume demonstrate for Central America how economic and environmental policies can be coordinated and integrated to advance both sustainability and competitiveness in the region.

Using comprehensive surveys, statistical analysis and micro and macro modeling, the authors demonstrate that Central America''s competitive future and development potential are inextricably linked to its natural environment. This is shown to be true not only in the negative sense of minimizing the damage to the natural resource base and mitigating the impact of natural disasters, but also in the positive sense of making the region more attractive to foreign investors, aligning the agricultural and tourist sectors with more lucrative markets, and exploiting the emerging markets in environmental services and "green" trade.

Citation

Kerr, Suzi; Alexander Pfaff, Arturo Sanchez. 2001. "The Dynamics of Deforestation and the Supply of Carbon Sequestration: Illustrative Results from Costa Rica" in Environment for Growth: Environmental Management for Sustainability and Competitiveness in Central America, Theodore Panayotou, Ed. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, pp. 409 - 431.