Protected Areas Program

The Forever Costa Rica’s Protected Areas Program aims to achieve the consolidation of an ecologically representative system of protected areas, effectively managed, adapted to the effects of climate change, and with a sustainable source of financing.

This Program includes the Forever Costa Rica Program (PCRXS), developed in 2010 by the Government of Costa Rica, through the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC), in partnership with external partners (Linden Trust for Conservation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Walton Family Foundation and The Nature Conservancy).

The program is composed of the  Forever Costa Rica Trust (FCRXS), focused on conservation in marine protected areas, and the II Debt for Nature Swap between the United States and Costa Rica (IICD),  focused on conservation actions within terrestrial protected areas. In 2023 another financial mechanism was created: the Blue Fund Costa Rica, focused on oceanic marine protected areas.

The PCRXS is a national strategy to meet Costa Rica’s conservation goals as declared by the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Convention’s Protected Areas Work Plan.

The Protected Areas Program supports 61 protected areas for the conservation of coastal, marine, and terrestrial biodiversity