Flood Resilience Alliance: Costa Rica Country Briefing

In Costa Rica, drivers of vulnerability such as unplanned population growth, poor distribution and use of land, and the mountainous and steeply sloping terrain have led to great ecological imbalances. One of the consequences is devastating flooding with sudden overflows.

The La Estrella, Limoncito, Banano, Reventazón, Matina, and Pacuare rivers, in the Limón province, and the Tempisque river, in the Guanacaste province, are among the rivers with the highest frequency of flooding, with return periods between 1 and 5 years.

Our objectives in Costa Rica

• Identify the applicable Costa Rican regulatory framework for DRR for floods, including recommendations and proposals for improvement,
  to guide compliance with binding agreements and initiatives for risk reduction, and to strengthen national legal frameworks.
• Recommend the generation of policies, plans, guidelines, strategies, and established municipal frameworks in accordance with the comprehensive
  disaster risk management policy.
• Achieve good practice and learning in disaster risk management, based on field experiences and analysis of specific contexts.
• Reinforce the coordination mechanism at the national, provincial, and municipal levels, between the different management mechanisms.
• Strengthen national, provincial, and municipal capacity for community resilience to floods.
• Improve the governance and regulatory disaster risk management framework.