Nature Air

The Osa Peninsula is caught in the cross hairs of the struggle between preservation and profit. This pristine parcel of Costa Rica is a major ecotourism attraction precisely because of its undeveloped beauty. This country is not alone in attempting to find a balance point between responsibly exploiting its natural beauty without destroying it in the process. If it were simply left to the marketplace to decide, commercial development would bleed the Osa dry. The government, nationally and locally, must find a way to navigate a course that encourages a balance between these opposing forces.

Our friend, Leland Baxter Neal, who writes on environmental issues for the Tico Times, recently wrote a feature on the planned shutdown of the Costanera Coastal Highway by a group of developers protesting the closure of a number of planned construction projects by the Environmental Tribunal. We have an update from Leland regarding the actual protest on December 4^th.“I just heard from a friend and freelance journalist who is down there. He estimated several hundred protestors showed up this morning and blocked the highway for four hours. Several officials spoke to the crowd from the back of a pick up truck. Osa Mayor Jorge Alberto Cole, who I had been told was supporting the protest and who has been vocally critical of closing developments in the region, reportedly asked protestors to clear the roads for traffic. Environmental Tribunal lead judge José Lino Chaves told the protesters that he would try to speed up the processing of the investigations and suspended projects, and Vice-Minister of the Environment Jorge Rodríguez agreed to analyze the situation. There was anger and shouting, but the protest was peaceful, my source tells me.”

The following is the article that appeared in the December 3^rd edition of the Tico Times, written by Leland Baxter-Neal.

“Developers angered over the closure of construction projects for alleged environmental violations planned to block the coastal highway today on the southern Pacific coast.

Víctor Solís, who heads the Chamber of Developers in the southern canton of Osa, said he expected between 1,000 and 1,200 protestors to show up, and they would block the Costanera coastal highway just north of Dominical and just south of Uvita.

“While it is true that there needs to be some control over development in the area, it is also true that there are people who live off it and depend on development for work,” Solís said.

The Environmental Tribunal, an administrative court of the Environment, Energy and Telecommunications Ministry (MINAET), has carried out surprise inspections of construction projects in Osa three times this year.

Two of those have targeted the Fila Costeña mountain range, where researchers and environmentalists have warned that uncontrolled development is harming the range’s ecosystems, including those along the coast.

A total of 35 projects along the mountain range have been suspended and put under investigation for potentially violating their construction permits or environmental laws.

“Eight hundred people are now unemployed,” Solís said. “We consider it a total abuse of authority.”

Solís said that projects are being closed down on simple suspicion, and some have gone for as long as eight months without seeing a formal accusation, forcing developers to fire their workers.

Solís acknowledged that three of the nine developments that he represents have been suspended by the tribunal, but denies any environmental wrongdoing.

José Lino Chaves, head judge at the tribunal, insisted all projects were closed with cause.

“Nothing is suspended without a technical report that tells us if there is environmental damage or not, or if (the developers) went beyond what their environmental permits allow,” Chaves said.

Chaves said his inspections uncovered illegal logging, construction within protected areas along rivers, streams and springs and unauthorized movements of earth – often roads or foundations dug without permits.”