Contributor(s): Dr René Castro | René Castro is the Minister for Foreign Affairs for Costa Rica. He obtained his Masters and PhD from Harvard University. His research focused on the design and development of an environmentally sustainable economy and management of natural resources. He had previously obtained a BSc in civil engineering from Universidad de Costa Rica. Dr Castro has also been Minister of Energy and the Environment, Vice Minister of the Interior, Director of the National Transport Institute, President of the Municipal Council for San Jose. Dr Castro led the Costa Rican delegations to the Biodiversity, Ozone and Climate Change Conventions, negotiated Costa Rica’s debt-for-nature swaps with Spain and Canada, and has served as advisor to other countries in their own negotiations. He was in charge of the first carbon trading transaction done in the world. Dr Castro is a professor at INCAE, and has lectured at Harvard, Columbia, Yale, MIT in the USA and at EHT in Switzerland and other universities around the world. He is the author of various books and articles, both in Spanish and English, on the relationship between the environment, politics and infrastructure.