The Republic of Costa Rica is a Central American country largely covered by tropical forest that exhibits high biodiversity. The country has made many efforts to conserve its forests and biodiversity, although in most cases forest and agricultural resources have been independently assessed. Nevertheless, the interdependence of forest, biodiversity and agricultural resources has highlighted the need to develop a monitoring system that would allow consistent, integrated and comprehensive monitoring of all of these resources. Since 2015, following a Ministerial Directive (DM-417-2015), the Government of Costa Rica has been developing a national system for monitoring land cover, land use and ecosystems (SIMOCUTE: Sistema Nacional de Monitoreo de la Cobertura y Uso de la Tierra y Ecosistemas) consisting of several integrated subsystems. SIMOCUTE constitutes the official platform for the integration and management of environmental data and information at national scale.

Type of Case
Printed publication (book, sourcebook, journal article…)

Publisher
FAO

Region
Americas

Biome
Tropical

Forest Type
All forest types (natural and planted)

Primary Designated Function
All