The Finance Ministry has cut funds from the environmental services payment program for 2010, according to the National Forestry Office (ONF).

The office, which had been promised ¢ 11,219 million for the program for 2010, will only receive ¢7,336 million next year.

The Finance Ministry is expected to use the money from the 35 percent cut in other areas. The Tico Times could not confirm by press time how the money diverted from the program will be spent.

The environmental services payment program is a government subsidy paid to residents who live near forests and waterways to implement conservation practices and plant trees.

In total, the state promised to help fund the protection of 57,600 hectares. After the administrative cuts and quota liquidation, the ONF estimates that the only 23,358 will be protected.

Alfonso Barrantes, executive director of ONF, said the lack of funds could put Costa Rica's 2021 carbon neutrality goal in jeopardy.

“A large part of the forestry that has been planted in the last 15 years due to this program is still growing,” he said. “If there is no support from the state to protect these forests with the environmental services payment (PSA) we put these growing trees at risk of loss. When the state revokes support of the PSA, the impact that the forest will have in sequestering carbon will be much less.”

Since the early 1990s, Costa Rica has boosted the amount of forested land from 21 percent to 51 percent of the country's total land area.