Strengthening competitiveness and low-carbon performance in Costa Rica´s coffee sector.

To reduce the damage to the environment caused by coffee production and to increase the efficiency of small coffee farms and processing plants in Costa Rica, through the development of the Nationally Appropiate Mitigation Action (NAMA). To adopt new technologies and better production practices by producers and processing plants, contributing to the improvement of the quality of life of families of coffee producers through the competitiveness of the coffee sector To contribute to more sustainable production, use of land and water sources, as well as of natural resources that serve as fuel. To define a new development model by means of which the Costa Rican coffee sector will establish, in accordance with the conditions, practices, and environments in which it operates, new technologies that can be adopted throughout the country to mitigate GHG emissions and their impact on climate change It is important to stand out that this project was first focus only in coffee but in its last year of implementation it scaled up to the development of other activities in the agricultural sector such as livestock and vegetable production. The project became possible thanks to the synergy between governmental, private, scientific, financial and technological institutions such as MAG, MINAE, ICAFE, UCR, UNA, INTA and Fundecooperación, as well as the financing of the MIF (Multilateral Investment Found). Some of the activities according to each component of the project are: Component #1: More efficient and less carbon intensive technologies designed and tested at the farm and mill levels. • Feasibility studies and business plans at the selected cooperatives to define baselines, mitigation potential, technical issues, technology maturity, cost and co-benefit assessment. • Design and implementation of pilot research projects with selected cooperatives of small coffee producers • Design of a cost effective monitoring and evaluation plan/system • Design of an effective extension program, with public and private sector partners, to scale up the initiative. Component #2: Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) system designed and validated. • Assessment of existing international protocols applied to agri-food sector. • Consultancies, workshops, webinars, and focus groups to design the MRV based on the country needs, reality and expectations , and translations. Component #3: NAMA for the coffee sector designed. This component will use the results of the technology pilots in component #1 to design a low-carbon development plan (NAMA) for the coffee sector in Costa Rica and institute GHG mitigation measures. Activities: • Stakeholders’ coordination. • Identification and assessment of possible barriers for scaling up GHG reduction efforts, including availability of financial instruments. • Collection and documentation of relevant information for NAMA’s proposal (consultant). • Consultants to develop the NAMA proposal and implementation plan. Component #4: Access to Markets and Dissemination With respect to dissemination, lessons learned and knowledge sharing was focus on project stakeholders and especially with MAG, which is in charge in the NAMA execution and on preparing NAMAs for other sectors in Costa Rica. Activities: • Presentations and workshops at national, regional and international level. This NAMA is the first in the agri food sector worldwide; therefore it generated knowledge (for CR and the MIF) that can be used for replication in LAC or other regions and products. The implementation of this NAMA is influencing in public policy (legal, regulatory, and policy environment), that will eventually contribute to improve the competitiveness of the agriculture sector (60% of territory in CR is dedicated to agriculture) in Costa Rica and the environmental practices, which accounts to 37% of the national GHG emissions. The project also had great impact in building capacities for coffee, livestock and vegetable farmers about climate actions in their production systems. Some of the main results obtained are: • 7 Pilot research projects on farms and coffee mills to promote climate actions. • 31 Valuations about climatic actions that consider factors as climate, profitability and technical component. • 7 Greenhouse gas emission factors updated for the agricultural sector. • More than 200 technicians and 2000 producers promote and implement actions for climate change adaptation and mitigation in coffee, livestock and vegetable production. • 1 new National strategy in livestock to support low-carbon production. • New regional climate strategies all over the country. • 6 Weather stations that function as an alert system to prevent diseases and plagues in the crop, as an adaptation practice in the coffee sector. • Investigation about barriers to obtain sustainable financing in Costa Rican agriculture. • 24 study cases about production systems as specialized tropical dairy, beef cattle raising, vegetable, avocado, coffee farms and coffee mills. • 3 demonstration modules: 1 greenhouse for urban agriculture and 2 livestock models for tropical dairy in the Huetar Caribe and Huetar Norte region. • 11 livestock associations from the region of Guanacaste strengthened in the implementation of climate actions. • 3 videos about different systems of sustainable production in livestock. • More than 20 printed materials (guides, books, manuals) to train new farmers and disseminate information about the project. The government makes official the methodologies and technologies determined in this initiative, and also continue to present them to the international community (UNFCCC) for international recognition and scale. For this project, the government has committed resources to scale up one of the technologies, which is related to the adoption of agroforestry systems through its Payment for Environmental Services Recognition Program Next steps should be working directly focused on producers through coffee associations and cooperatives, as well as extension workers to create internal capacity in the country. Also supporting the development of mechanisms to remove technical and financial barriers for farmers. Other institutions can get involved by approaching to Fundecooperación, MAG, MINAE and ICAFE that continue working with producers all around the country.