Nature Air

Nature Blog is not a news oriented blog, but it is impossible to overlook the resignation of Roberto Dobles, Environment, Energy and Telecommunications Minister. Costa Rica’s well being is closely tied to the public perception and the reality of how the government balances the interests of conservation and commerce.

Once again, we turn to Leland Baxter Neal, a journalist with the Tico Times. Leland has recently launched his own blogand we encourage you to check it out. We asked him for some insight into this important occurrence:

“Today, Roberto Dobles steps down as the Environment, Energy and Telecommunications Minister. He is the third minister to resign amidst a cloud of controversy, and arguably it is the most celebrated departure yet, at least among some sectors. 

In Costa Rica, many who work in environmental organizations, especially at the grass roots level, are very critical of President Oscar Arias’ handling of the environment. Over and over, I hear complaints that Arias makes nice speeches, but does not translate his rhetoric into real environmental progress at home. Instead, business interests constantly trump environmental protection, they say.

Even more ire has been reserved for Dobles, a telecommunications exec with little environmental experience. Dobles has been at the center of some of the biggest environmental scandals in the country, and my email was lit up within an hour of the news of his resignation with celebratory missives.

The impact of the scandal that brought him down will be decided in the courts. In the meantime, the real question for Costa Rica’s environment is if a new face at the helm will bring a different approach.”

For more on this story, please visit Leland’s blog, which begins with the following introduction:

You could almost hear the cheers go up in the halls of Costa Rica’s grass roots environmental organizations and public universities: Environment (and Energy and Telecommunications) Minister Roberto Dobles had announced his resignation.

After a a series of environmental scandals and increasingly hostile criticism, Dobles, a former telecommunications executive, announced Friday that he will step down today. This, after Costa Rica’s Telenoticias TV news revealed last week that he awarded a mining concession to a corporation where his uncle (and cousin to President Oscar Arias) is the vice-president.