The government of Costa Rica celebrated Sunday the obtaining of the international Earthshot award in the category Protect and Restore Nature and promised to intensify its efforts in the fight against climate change.

“We received the award with pride but with humility (...). It is an honor for our five million people. We will continue to recognize nature as our most valuable asset, moving towards a carbon-neutral world ”, President Carlos Alvarado explained virtually, during the event held in London.

Costa Rica won the award, awarded by the Royal Foundation and promoted by Prince William of England, for its Payment for Environmental Services (PES) program, used for 24 years in the country.

"What we have achieved in this small Central American country can be achieved anywhere in the world," said the president.

The program has been in operation since 1997 and consists of an economic recognition to owners and holders of forests and forest plantations for conserving their spaces without manipulation.

The plan allowed doubling the areas that had been deforested in previous decades and also contributed $4 billion through ecotourism.

The magic of our forests is the seed of our development model. (...) Costa Rica shows once again to the world that we are pioneers in successfully developing conservation models on land ”, he added when hearing the news of the award.

Costa Rica will also receive an economic input of about $1.4 million

“We will invest these resources in replicating and strengthening these models in marine conservation; We know that we must be diligent and act now to counteract the impacts of climate change, or the effects will be irreversible, ”Alvarado commented.

The Costa Rican Minister of Environment and Energy, Andrea Meza, told AFP that within the Earthshot organization “they were looking for effective solutions for great global challenges and the Costa Rican model allowed to catalyze this new industry and generate new income and linkages associated with tourism ”.

"What they want is to take it (the project) to other places, because they can be useful tools, replicated in other countries so that collectively at the global level we can stop this destruction of biodiversity," he added.

In the final stage, Costa Rica's proposal surpassed the Restor project, from Switzerland, and the Pole Pole Foundation, from Congo.

 Earthshots, which will continue to be delivered annually until 2030, the deadline for reaching the vast majority of environmental goals set out in the Paris Agreement on climate change, signed by 175 nations.

The event, which aspires to become the Nobel Prize for the Environment, was televised from London's Alexandra Palace and featured performances by artists such as Coldplay and Ed Sheeran.

There were five categories in total: protecting and restoring nature, cleaning the air, reviving the oceans, building a world without waste, and repairing the climate.

They rewarded both people - activists, scientists, economists - as well as companies, organizations, governments, cities or countries that proposed viable solutions to the climate crisis.

The other fifteen finalists included a farm in the Bahamas that raises global warming-resistant corals, a solar-powered ironing board on wheels invented by an Indian teenager, a Japanese company working on wastewater treatment, or a project that seeks to provide clean and affordable electricity in Nigeria.

Prince William, the grandson of Elizabeth II, thus presented his first environmental awards, after a week marked by the discontent of British royalty at the inaction of world leaders in the face of climate change.

In addition to the prince, the jury for this first edition was made up of personalities such as the Colombian singer Shakira, the Brazilian soccer player Dani Alves, the former UN climate officer Christina Figueres, the Australian actress Cate Blanchett, Queen Rania of Jordan, and the British naturalist David Attenborough.

Endowed with an amount of 50 million pounds over ten years (more than 59 million euros, just over 68 million dollars), the Earthshot award, created in 2020, aims to be "the most prestigious global environmental award in history" , and is inspired by the lunar program of US President John F. Kennedy, who contributed particularly to the technological development of humanity.