JUNE 17, 2026 - San Jose
Costa Rica has become the first country in the world to successfully verify national removals from REDD+ under ART-TREES - The REDD+ Environmental Excellence Standard from The Architecture for REDD+ Transactions - the most rigorous international benchmark for jurisdictional forest carbon credits. The verification covers results from 2017, 2018, and 2019.
The milestone positions Costa Rica as a flagship country for high-integrity jurisdictional forest carbon credits that meet the most demanding requirements for environmental and social integrity and solidifies the country's historical position as a global environmental pioneer.
Unlocking high-integrity climate finance
For the 2017-2019 monitoring period, Costa Rica has verified a total volume of 1,095,881 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent (tCO₂e) in removals. These credits will be purchased through the LEAF Coalition (Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance) and the Government of Norway, ensuring that finance flows back into forest conservation and sustainable livelihoods.
Thanks to the high-integrity requirements of the standard, the price paid per tonne of CO₂ removed is higher than the usual voluntary carbon market price, with a floor price of USD 10 per tCO₂e. Costa Rica's verified removals represent at least USD 10.9 million in potential climate finance, with tangible impacts on sustainable livelihoods, particularly for Indigenous Peoples, youth, and women, and supporting continued implementation of the country's REDD+ Strategy and Nationally Determined Contribution.
Three decades of sustained policy
Costa Rica's verified results are the product of more than three decades of sustained forest and climate policy, anchored in a coherent legal and institutional framework, the pioneering Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) Programme with a strong presence in Indigenous Territories, consistent institutional leadership through FONAFIFO and SINAC, and long-term political commitment across administrations. AFOLU emissions have fallen from 14.3 MtCO₂e per year in 1998 to approximately 1.2 MtCO₂e per year in 2023, demonstrating that forest protection can function as both a climate solution and an economic strategy.
Guided by a pragmatic and forward-looking vision, Costa Rica has strategically leveraged synergies across multiple results-based finance streams, advancing a diversified approach to climate finance that reinforces national implementation priorities. In this context, the GCF REDD+ Results-Based Payments project has been instrumental in enabling the country to verify ART/TREES results at scale. UN-REDD has also played a critical role by providing high-quality technical assistance and expertise, supporting alignment with international standards on forest monitoring, carbon accounting, and safeguards, while strengthening Costa Rica’s capacity to sustain and expand its REDD+ ambition.
The achievement sets an important precedent for other countries seeking to demonstrate the impact of their forest conservation policies through high-integrity credits. UNDP is also supporting Ecuador and the State of Pará in Brazil, which are at advanced stages of the same process, with Costa Rica's experience informing peer learning across Latin America.