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Steve Watkins is director of the global protected areas strategy for The Nature Conservancy. He is responsible for development, implementation and coordination of the Conservancy's overall work in support of protected areas around the world. Before joining the Conservancy six years ago, Steve worked in private-sector business and was converted to the cause of conservation through his family visits to national parks and other protected areas in the United States and around the world. Get Involved Join the Conservancy's online community and you can explore new places, receive email you want and build your own personalized nature page! "What's new about this pending agreement is the idea of structuring this conservation project with elements of a typical business transaction." —Steve Watkins is director of the global protected areas strategy for The Nature Conservancy Map of "Forever Costa Rica" Project See a map detailing how this project will help improved protected areas in Costa Rica. Click to enlarge. Go Deeper Forever Costa Rica Learn more about this innovative project that's using business principles to create a sustainably managed and financed system of protected areas. Making Peace with Nature Hear from Costa Rican President Oscar Arias about his country's ambitious conservation goals. Adopt an Acre® in Costa Rica From tropical forest to coastal waters — help protect Costa Rica's natural beauty by adopting an acre today!

By Steve Watkins

Not many positive things are being said these days about business and finance. But stealing a few pages from the business playbook might be just what we need to protect our lands and waters at a scale and pace that will make a difference.

Business-as-usual conservation — even when it looks at complete landscapes or ecosystems — is having a hard time keeping up with the pace of destruction caused by threats like climate change, deforestation and overfishing.

Recognizing this, The Nature Conservancy is part of an innovative initiative in Costa Rica that could revitalize our approach by bringing the urgency and money needed to get conservation done across an entire country.

Forever Costa Rica: Making Peace with Nature

To secure the health of its lands and waters and the future of its people, Costa Rica aspires to become the first developing country in the world to make peace with nature by:

• Establishing a complete, sustainably managed and permanently financed protected areas system; and
• Managing this protected areas' system to address the challenges of climate change.

Even with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias' extraordinary vision and commitment, bringing private funds to the table is necessary to help reach these goals. That's why the government of Costa Rica, the Conservancy, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Linden Trust for Conservation are structuring a "deal" for conservation called Forever Costa Rica.

What's new about this pending agreement is the idea of structuring this conservation project with elements of a typical business transaction:

• A closing date is being set, which establishes a hard deadline that all partners are working towards.
• At this time, all the funds must be committed ($50 million of external private and public money and $19 million annually from the Costa Rica government) and a non-binding agreement will be signed.
• This document will outline specific goals and benchmarks that the government will need to achieve to maintain access to the private funds.

And what will those goals do for conservation?

• Forever Costa Rica is being designed to help the government of Costa Rica double the extent of its marine protected areas and strengthen the management of marine and terrestrial protected areas so they effectively conserve Costa Rica's natural diversity.
• The project will also lay the foundation for helping Costa Rica's people and nature adapt to the inevitable impacts of climate change — by helping to secure important "ecosystem services" benefits (such as fisheries and security of water supplies) for the country's economy.

From Costa Rica to the World

Seen in a global context, the Forever Costa Rica project is much bigger than one country. If it works, this idea of achieving a "triple win" for biodiversity protection, ecosystem services benefits for people and climate change adaptation by creating a "deal for conservation" could work for other countries. Because of its international reputation for conservation, Costa Rica is the perfect place to test this approach.

As President Arias has said: "Costa Rica por Siempre is not just an investment in Costa Rica: it's an investment in our common home, our planet Earth."

That's just the type of stimulus plan that our planet needs.

(March 2009)

Photo credits (top to bottom, left to right): © Sunset in Costa Rica's Osa Peninsula (Sergio Pucci/TNC); courtesy of Steve Watkins