The monkeys are calling once more

During my seven-month stay in Costa Rica while working on my diploma thesis back in 1994, the local deforestation problem was writ large. In many regions such large areas had been cleared that one no longer saw trees at all – just red soil. No calls by the famous howler monkeys which had previously populated the forests were to be heard. The national parks were the last places where one could still see what the invaluable rainforest ecosystem had looked like before. Now you’ll say that hardly sounds like a story from which to take a positive lesson home. On the contrary! But for the moment, read on.

We have no rainforest here in Germany. And, of course, our situation differs from that of other countries in many ways – meteorologically, geologically, socially and more. Nonetheless, there is a lot we can learn from them when it comes to climate action. For example, we can look to the north: Norway has decided to phase out combustion-engine cars from 2025 onwards. And indeed, last year almost all new registrations were electric. This has been achieved by exempting electric vehicles from value-added tax – while keeping it very high for combustion engines – combined with exemptions from or reductions of other road usage levies, provision of free parking for electric vehicles in cities, rebated taxes for electric company cars, mandatory procurement of electric vehicles in public calls for tender and, finally, expansion of charging infrastructure. China, for its part, has employed vehicle registration as a tool to put electric cars on the fast lane – registering a combustion-engine vehicle there is time-consuming and costly, while registering an electric one can be done quickly online. That sounds like an idea that could be useful here at home, too. Wherever we look around the globe there are countless, inspiring examples of effective climate action – take just the ban on plastic bags adopted in Morocco, the scheme for non-profit municipal housing in Vienna or the luxury tax on large cars in Thailand.

Let’s go back to Costa Rica. A good twenty years after my first stay I went there again with my family. I was astonished: no trace of deforestation, forest areas had grown back greatly and were linked up in habitat networks. Seeing howler monkeys had become a normal part of the scenery once more. We saw and heard them regularly on the terrace of our lodgings. What can we learn from this? That well-designed, rigorous forest and nature conservation policies can achieve much in relatively short periods if one stays focused. It is this kind of focus that we need at home, too – combined with innovative ideas and the courage to test them.

Yours,

Anke Herold
CEO, Oeko-Institut
a.herold@oeko.de