To counter reducing forest area coverage in the 1980s, the Costa Rican government pioneered a scheme in 1997 known as "PES", which rewarded private land owners for keeping forests intact on their lands in lieu of the services provided by these forests to the environment and the economy as a whole. The World Bank, which provided the loan initially from 2000 to 2006 to support the payments incentivizing afforestation, viewed the program as a success overall despite some of its shortcomings.