Nature and people’s prosperity are connected. From the COVID-19 pandemic, Costa Rica as well as the rest of the world required solidary actions to recover from social and economic challenges. As a result, the Costa Rican government, MINAE, FONAFIFO, FUNBAM, UNDP Biodiversity Finance Initiative and UNDP created “Huella del Futuro” #Footprints4ourFuture—a crowdfunding campaign that seeks to improve the quality of living conditions from people of the “North Zone,” specifically women. In the first phase, the goal was to plant 200,000 trees in the Northern region and ensure their maintenance for the next five years. In contribution to the country’s efforts to increase its forest cover to 60 percent by 2030, through “Huella del Futuro” #Footprints4ourFuture, the aim was to enhance communities' resilience amidst the climate emergency and to protect the country’s biodiversity.

The campaign began planting in October 2020, including subsequent maintenance care for 5 years after planting. To date, “Huella del Futuro” continues to accept local donations through their homepage https://huelladelfuturo.cr/en, as well as through the Classy platform with BIOFIN UNDP’s international crowdfunding support. As of July 2022, “Huella del Futuro” has received $1,749,671 in total through its homepage and  through Classy combined  as donations for planting trees, with the original goal of $1,977,200.

To support a greener resilience and nature-based response, and to inherit future generations and our planet with the most invaluable asset through #Footprints4ourFuture, BIOFIN Costa Rica mobilized 1.71 million USD with the contributions of 2,544 individual donors, 19 private companies, 6 embassies ("Friendship forests" with Spain, Germany, France, Italy), and 2 public institutions. In cooperation with 6 implementing partners and 2 women-led organizations, this initiative planted native trees that will survive changes in the climate, in order to confront the threat of biodiversity loss and to contribute to the generation of green jobs by boosting the income of people who are unemployed or have a significantly reduced income—specifically women. Through this crowdfunding campaign, 186 green wages and 31 green jobs have been created, and 95 beneficiaries of vulnerable communities have been supported.  

Tree planting progress and ongoing maintenance programs can be observed through a geospatial viewer through https://huelladelfuturo.cr/en/our-footprint, an online map to visualize the place where each tree has been planted and other specific information of the planted species.