Summary

In the late 1980s the Hojancha canton was in crisis, soil and pastures were seriously degraded, water became increasingly scarce, and rivers and streams dried up in summer; meat prices fell and many families had to emigrate because they could no longer live on their farms.

In the mid-1990s a Comprehensive Development Plan promoted using areas with slopes greater than 60% for regenerating forests and areas with lower slopes for intensifying cattle production, through a silvopastoral approach. This included planting improved, no-till pastures in less steep areas, rational rotational grazing, introducing timber and fruit trees in paddocks and along boundaries, managing live fences, planting and using forage banks with strategic supplementation in the summer, minimum infrastructure—corrals, feeders, troughs, and a grinder— for semistabling in summer, and banning animals from springs to prevent damage and contamination.

This was supplemented with training and technical assistance, improved producer organization to boost producers’ access to markets, credit, and incentives, such as payment for environmental services.

Proposed changes resulted in improving productivity, diversifying production, obtaining greater economic benefits, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing soil carbon sequestration, and being less vulnerable to extreme climate change events.

Costa Rica’s Government has started the implementation of initiatives aimed at controlling greenhouse gas emissions in cattle farming and has taken the experience in Hojancha as a model for promoting the “Low-Carbon Cattle Farming Strategy,” conducted by the Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería (MAG) and the Ministerio de Ambiente, Energía y Telecomunicaciones (MINAET).