Costa Rica
My portrait for Costa Rica is Andrea Meza Murillo who has shaped policy and driven change in decarbonisation, green development and halting deforestation in Costa Rica, throughout Latin America and now on a global platform
Geography
Costa Rica is a country in the Central American region of North America. Costa Rica is bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as maritime border with Ecuador to the south of Cocos Island.
Source Wikipedia
Environmental issues
The main environmental problems for Costa Rica has been deforestation but as a country, Costa Rica has also gained a strong reputation for trailblazing in positive environmental policy
About Andrea
The subject for my portrait for Costa Rica is Andrea Meza Murillo who, as Costa Rica’s Director for Climate Change, led the launch of one of the world’s first detailed national decarbonization plans, and brought together a team who collaboratively laid the foundations for the country’s green development model.
When Andrea started her work 20 years ago Costa Rica had the highest deforestation rate in the area. Her work led to a prohibition on land use change, increase tax on fossil fuels and incentives given from the tax raised to landowners and indigenous communities to manage the landscape
Andrea is a lawyer with over 20 years of expertise in sustainable development, and has gone on to work in more than 15 Latin American countries to formulate public policies, participate in international negotiations, and execute climate, conservation and restoration projects.
Andrea is now the Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification- The UNCCD, rallying up global ambition to restore degraded lands.
More of Andrea’s story and the full timelapse process video of her painting can be found in the YouTube video by clicking on the link below