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The troubles of Costa Rica to maintain its environmental flag

2022-08-11T14:33:50.302Z


The sustainable country poster faces long-overdue problems, priorities disrupted by the pandemic and the economic crisis, and a new government that generates confusion among conservationists


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“Times are difficult, so we will do it slowly, slowly, but surely… as long as global conditions allow it, without sacrificing too much current well-being in exchange for a distant future;

but not sacrificing the future for immediate profit either”.

This is the phrase pronounced on May 24 at the World Economic Forum, in Davos, by the president of Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves, on his first trip since taking power after winning the elections as a proponent of strong changes in this small country Central American recognized for its environmentalist vocation.

This is how he answered a question about the environmental proposal of his incipient government before other public officials and investors who are supposed to value more and more the sustainability profile of their destinations.

And he continued: “In Costa Rica we have historical challenges with the management of our river basins.

We have invested very little in sewage systems and we have too much pollution, we are going to work on that.

In solids management, we are not recycling, we are not doing enough of a circular economy.”

As unusual as the scenario was, Chaves was not lying when he pointed out serious and long-standing problems that are hidden under the stage of the international awards for the environmental fruits of the last 40 years and for the applause of previous governments' plans against climate change.

A group of men wash their clothes in the Peñas Blancas river, in the province of Guancaste, Costa Rica.

Michael Robinson Chavez (The Washington Post via Getty Images)

The moment of the global economy is complicated for the environmental profile of the country and Chaves is part of the moment.

Although he questions the profitability of an eventual oil exploration in Costa Rica, he pushed back the efforts of the previous government to prohibit this activity by law.

He sees the exploitation of natural gas as acceptable.

He ruled out promoting the ratification of the Escazú Agreement, an international treaty signed in 2018 here in Costa Rica for the protection of environmental activists, with the support of the United Nations.

He governs with the explicit support of business chambers that prioritize “economic reactivation”, a concept that he repeats as his mantra after the pandemic hit.

Electric mobility is not on their to-do list.

Environmental sectors see it as confusing, to say the least.

Others believe that it is early to judge the government's environmental flank, although they admit that there are no promising signs.

There are not many clear criticisms from leaders of the environmental sector, NGOs or authorities of the recent past.

No one wants to get into public fights with the government.

"There may be a lot of caution, in addition to satisfaction from a sector that Minister Tattenbach comes from (private forests) and expectation for what the new government will bring, beyond some improvisation that we have noticed," Henry Picado told EL PAÍS, spokesperson for a group of environmental associations called the Costa Rican Federation for Conservation (Fecon).

On the other hand, a conservationist group called the Green Block blames the Government for an "authoritarian drift" due to a plan for a legal reform that would take away from citizen groups (academic, social or scientific) the right to participate in the decision-making process of the Ministry of Ambient.

It is "concentrating power in the figure of the minister, which calls into question the will of the Executive Branch to strengthen the democratization of environmental governance," says the organization.

It also warns about possible sources of conflict in the country where nine out of 10 Costa Ricans support the idea that the post-pandemic economy must recover hand in hand with the environment, but only two out of 10 have actively participated in meetings, calls or organizations of your community on climate change,

Capuchin monkeys in the tropical jungle of Costa Rica.

Wolfgang Kaehler (Getty Images)

Other groups are still awaiting the appointment of a deputy minister in charge of water and seas (91% of the country's surface), a position created in the last decade in line with recent trends in protecting water resources and life on the coasts and in oceans, such as the two that flank the Central American isthmus, especially vulnerable to disruptions due to climate change.

The minister, an economist named Franz Tattenbach with experience protecting terrestrial national parks, has already hinted that he would see fit to lift a current ban on fishing by dangerous bottom trawling methods.

Even so, recognized environmental voices prefer not to sound the alerts of the moment, aware that there are other problems that come from years ago.

Although 99% of electricity production comes from clean sources, 75% of total energy expenditure is fueled by imported fossil fuels, due to a vehicle fleet that, by proportion per capita, is the third largest in Latin America.

Numerous diagnoses and experts also point out deficiencies in urban growth, in the use of agrochemicals and in the contamination of rivers, as Chaves said openly in Davos.

Costa Rica retains advantages over international averages, but its own trend is adverse: between 2011 and 2022, it fell from 5th place in the world to 68th, among 180 nations evaluated in the Environmental Performance Index, a measurement carried out by researchers from the universities of Yale and Columbia, in the United States.

The country ranks 167th in recycling and 157th in managing the concentration of nitrogen in the soil, associated with fertilizers.

Among the nations of Latin America, however, Costa Rica retains the third best overall position, only below Cuba (position 60) and Chile (65).

The environmental strengths are extensive, acknowledges the 2021 report from a think tank and research center of state universities called the State of the Nation Program.

He attributes this to decades of public initiatives, private and civil society participation, in addition to various ecosystem management schemes.

This can be confirmed by the thousands of foreigners who support the ecotourism industry and the 93% of the population who have access to drinking water just by turning on the tap at home, although the risks are just as evident.

Conchal Beach, in Guanacaste, Costa Rica Federico Meneghetti (Getty Images)

“Despite the fact that internally the challenges are deep and the situation is serious in many agendas, it is undeniable that, comparatively, recognition was obtained regarding the progress made in conservation.

It is imperative to take care of what has been built and, above all, define informed and precise policies that counteract the risks.

The current context, marked by the pandemic caused by covid-19 and the deep crisis that it has generated, has become a breeding ground for the return of anti-environmental discourses, and the generation of new tensions that favor the neglect or use unsustainable nature of the protected natural resources or of the recovered coverage”, states the State of the Nation 2021 report.

That same report projects that the trend of urban planning and agricultural development will cause in 2025 a loss of tree cover of more than 500 km2 (1.4% of the current surface), especially in areas of crops and with greater social backwardness, despite the repeated remarks of Christiana Figueres, the Costa Rican international reference against climate change, who never tires of warning that the country's development opportunities reside precisely in those particular environmental conditions.

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-08-11

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