Celebrations were held throughout Costa Rica yesterday, June 15, in honor of the international tree day, and officials as well as school children were photographed planting trees. Conservationists say that while progress has been made, efforts need to continue.

Costa Rica’s current forest cover comprises 52 percent of the nation’s territory, detailed a report on the country’s Monumental Radio station, and the figure is high compared with the meager 20 percent forest coverage of just decades ago.

Large scale reforestation programs, designation of protected lands, laws to detect illegal logging, and increased environmental education have all helped create a greener country.

Despite the progress, which was acknowledged by the director of the Neotropical Foundation, Bernardo Aguilar, forest cover can and should continue to increase.

Forest cover offers many benefits, one of which, often unrecognized, is the protection afforded when natural disasters strike. The area where Hurricane Otto passed through last November, said Aguilar, would have suffered even greater destruction if not for the forests in that region.

According to Aguilar, the country doesn’t necessarily need more funding for reforestation, rather needs to better direct the use of existing funds.

However, he pointed out, in areas such as wetlands, deforestation is evident, perhaps because of their remote locations they do not receive due attention and monitoring.

Aguilar also said that attention must be paid to specific cases such as the potential damage that could be caused on Isla Portillos in northern Costa Rica on the Nicaraguan border where an expanse of 200-year old woodlands is threatened by human activities.

The conservationist called for strengthening environmental education to further people’s understanding of the importance of trees in transforming carbon dioxide, and in preventing soil erosion and also the risk of flooding.