Environmental Compensation Actions in Costa Rica: Disparity between Commitments and Actions

Abstract

Introduction: Environmental compensation is a legal-administrative instrument used by agencies that supervise the environmental impact assessment (EIA) to offset irreversible impacts generated by development projects. The compensation is usually framed in the principle of ecological equivalence, which seeks to equate the losses due to the impact with a net environmental gain obtained by the compensatory actions. Methods: We analyzed the records of development projects that have merited an environmental compensation plan registered by the National Environmental Technical Secretariat of Costa Rica (SETENA) between January 2018 and June 2020. Results: Seventy-four projects were analyzed; just over 75% of them corresponded to infrastructure projects while the rest concerned exploitation activities of materials and resources. The main impacts that elicited compensation plans were: deforestation and destruction of riverbanks (13%), earthworks (15.5%), poor water management (15.5%), and administrative faults or non-compliance with environmental commitments (62%). The main compensatory measures conducted were: building school infrastructure (20% of the projects), support for environmental education programs (17%), and reforestation programs (>15%), although actions such as the purchase of school supplies, donation of equipment to local communities and the arrangement of roads and causeways were also recorded. In only three projects, the replacement of the impacted habitat was used as compensation for projected damage. Discussion: The registered compensatory measures do not endorse the spirit of return on components equivalent to those impacted that generate a net environmental gain and respond only to impacts that had not been considered during the preliminary evaluation of the project. The compensation plan used in Costa Rica is a sanctioning instrument based on economic valuation and does not guarantee a return equivalent to environmental losses. Therefore, compensation must be integrated in the preliminary evaluations of the projects, identifying these measures in the early stages and separating them from administrative faults.