Coping with climate change in Costa Rica

The Tropical Forest and Climate Change Adaptation (TroFCCA) project has increased our knowledge about how to assess vulnerability to climate change, and how to devise adaptation measures. In Costa Rica, one of the countries where TroFCCA conducted research, CIFOR collaborated with the Tropical Agriculture Research and Higher Education Centre (CATIE). The researchers focused on a vulnerable area within the Reventazón watershed, whose dams provide 27 per cent of Costa Rica’s hydropower. 

During recent years, the increase in frequency and intensity of extreme precipitation events has led to serious soil erosion, resulting in an increase in sedimentation which threatens the dams’ potential to generate power. Trying to counter this has cost the National Institute for Hydroelectricity (ICE), which has a state monopoly on energy supply, millions of dollars. 

The research investigated what would happen if extreme precipitation events continued to increase; how different land-use options might help communities and the environment adapt to climate change; and the sort of incentives that could encourage farmers to adopt land-use practices which reduce erosion, and therefore sedimentation in the dams. 

‘The project improved our knowledge about soil conservation and gave us a better understanding of how to improve soil management on agricultural land,’ says ICE engineer Gustavo Calvo Domingo. ‘We are now promoting activities which will be beneficial both to farmers and to the company.’ These activities will help reduce erosion and the costs associated with removing sediment from the dams.