Costa Rican Banana Industry to achieve Carbon Neutrality in 4 years

Costa Rica recently announced its intention to be carbon neutral as a nation by 2021 when it celebrates the 200th anniversary of its independance, but the Costa Rican banana industry intends to beat that and be carbon neutral in just 4 years.

This is the first banana industry in the world to put in place a coherent and holistic environmental strategy in order to offset its carbon dioxide emissions.

Corbana, the Costa Rican banana producers’ association, has recently submitted to Costa Rica’s Ministry of Environment and Energy the ‘Banana Industry Action Plan against Climate Change’, which aims at cutting its net greenhouse gasses emissions to zero by 2012.

The Costa Rica Banana Industry Action Plan against Climate Change will first calculate the overall level and source of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses produced by the industry in order to properly advise individual banana farms on what steps and measures they must take to offset them.

Once the emissions assessment is finalized, Corbana and the Banana Environment Commission will encourage producers to adopt a number of concrete measures, namely: Creating more carbon sinks through reforestation programmes; Cutting back in the use of fossil fuels and fertilisers; Switching to biofuels and biodegradable plastics; Reducing the use of traditional pesticides and fertilisers through the application of biopesticides and biofertilisers; Implementing energy-saving programmes.

Furthermore an educational programme will be implemented, to raise awareness amongst banana workers of the importance of combating climate change through CO2 emissions reduction; and a manual of good environmental practices will be developed to reinforce this programme.

While Costa Rica makes up only 0.03% of the world’s landmass, it holds 5% of the world’s biodiversity. That is why the Costa Rica banana industry is a leader in the environmental field. For over 15 years, most of Costa Rica’s banana farms have been carrying out long-term reforestation projects in their plantations. For example, the banana industry’s current contribution to conservation and reforestation is 6,305 hectares of replanted forests, 14.4% of the land used for banana plantations. More importantly, banana plantations only use less than 1% of the country’s territory.

Costa Rica is an international leader on green issues, with protected areas like national parks and biological reserves covering more than a quarter of its territory. It is the first tropical nation to reverse deforestation. Thanks to conservation and replanting, its forest cover has increased from 21 percent in 1986 to 51 percent today. The country also generates 78 percent of its energy with hydroelectric power and another 18 percent by wind or geothermal power. The next step is to cut emissions from transport, farming, and industry.

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