Costa Rica’s progress in developing a national land use, land cover and ecosystems monitoring system

Since 2015, Costa Rica has been in the process of developing a national system for monitoring land cover, land use and ecosystems (Sistema Nacional de Monitoreo de la Cobertura y Uso de la Tierra y Ecosistemas, SIMOCUTE). This system is being designed to produce reliable data on changes in land use, land cover and ecosystems, increase knowledge sharing, improve data management, harmonize data classification systems and methodologies, and allowing Costa Rica to make informed decisions regarding sustainable land management and forest policies. Despite financial and institutional constraints, implementation of SIMOCUTE has been successful, with 25 institutions across the country working to implement the system, endorsed from the Minister of Environment and energy, the Minister of Justice, the Minister of Agriculture and Livestock and the National Center for Geoenvironmental Information.