Climate Change Conference at Upeace

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Climate Change: Disaster or Opportunity? Sat 17th April 2010

This event is open to all those interested in climate change and its effects on human populations. We will be asking the question: While climate change will undoubtedly have negative impacts, does it also hold the potential for new social, economic and political opportunities? This one-day conference will include a variety of lectures, panel discussions and workshops on the theme of climate change and related policy – from the grassroots to the global stage. It will feature cutting edge work in climate related research and policy, with a focus on interdisciplinary perspectives, and will be of interest to students, policymakers, academics and members of business and the NGO community.

More Death Threats in Salvador: Journalists Take Cover

It’s been a few rough weeks for environmentalists in El Salvador.  They’ve been fighting tooth and nail the gold mine run by Pacific Rim Mining Corp in the Department of Cabañas.   Pacific Rim is a Canadian owned mine — if you’ve been following this blog, do you see a pattern here?  In December, two prominent environmentalists were assassinated 80′s style — like Dora Alicia Sorto Recinos who was eight months pregnant and carrying her 2 year-old when she was gun down on December 26th.  Six days prior, Ramiro Rivera Gómez was assassinated.

Now, according to Journalists without Borders, the death squads are going after journalists…again.  It started in July when three journalists from Radio Victoria received death threats.   New threats came in after Mr. Rivera was killed on December 2oth stating the next to go could be, “a presenter, a reporter or anyone else working for this damned radio station.”

Here’s a YouTube video posted just after the July threats.

A Prayer for Haiti

We send our thoughts and prayers to the millions of Haitians whose lives were upended only a few short days ago. We send our thoughts and prayers to all on the long road to recovery. We send our thoughts and prayers to recovery workers, both Haitian and international: may your strength save lives and reunite families. We send our thoughts and prayers to our world’s leaders: may your response be quick and decisive. We send our thoughts and prayers to all who share in helping rebuild Haiti.

Assassinated Guatemalan Park Ranger: The People Fight On

In a few hours it will mark one week since Guatemalan Park Ranger Samuel Rodríguez Reyes was assassinated in his office.  In the past few days much has been revealed about the complexities of Mr. Rodriguez’s work protecting the Cerro San Gil national reserve.  Even more interesting, people living near the park are cautiously carrying on his fight.

Red handed. Police examine the explosives found to blow holes for cell phone towers in the Cerro San Gil national reserve. Photo courtesy of Prensa Libre.

Mr. Rodriguez persistently reported on logging, hunting and, in particular, illegal construction inside the park’s borders.  So, when local residents heard explosions last Tuesday (two days after the assassination), they got the national police out to the park.  Guess what?  They made an arrest. Ángel Patricio Rico Contreras, a Chilean, was caught red-handed with 50 pounds of explosives, detonators, ammonium nitrate, fuses and everything else to blow holes for the base of a cell phone tower.

Apparently Mr. Rico was up in the park blowing holes that were heard for miles around — neighbors living in the vicinity immediately called the police who moved in to arrest Rico, an employee of A.J. Ingenieros Constructora — a local contractor for Tigo, a huge cell phone company.  What did Tigo have to say for themselves?  They chose to pass the buck stating that it is the responsibility of A.J. Ingenieros Constructora to get the contracts and do environmental impact studies.  Hmmm…

This is the small office where park ranger Samuel Rodriguez was found last Saturday morning.

Not only was there not an impact study, but A.J. Ingenieros Constructora did not have a license to use explosives.  I think Mr. Rico has got himself in quite a predicament.  He’s caught somewhere between illegal detonations and assassinations.  Tough spot considering he’s probably just a guy hired to go blow some holes.

If I were the Guatemalan police, I’d be looking very closely at A.J. Ingenieros Constructora and their relationship with the assassinated park ranger.  If I were the Guatemalan Attorney General, I’d be looking very closely at the relationship between Tigo and A.J. Ingenieros Constructora.  More to follow.

The happiest people on the face of the Earth

You know, people around here are pretty “satisfecho” with their lives. While not outwardly emotional — Costa Rican are pretty evenly-keeled people — there is a general feeling of security and a soft-spoken kindness among my “Tico” counterparts.

Nick Kristoff, the world-traveling New York Times Op/Ed columnist, is trekking around Costa Rica with his 12 year-old daughter (he filed his article from San José yesterday).   He was touting Costa Rica’s most recent claim to fame: the world’s most happy people.

Top of his game: be on the look out, Nicholas Kristoff is wandering the streets of San José.

In fact, when this hit international news last summer, it inspired my first post in the Dispatch from a Small Planet (thanks to my father-in-law Ben).

Nice article, Nick. You hit a few things on the nose — like attributing happiness to not having a standing army (not sure if that logic exactly translates over in Switzerland, but works well here). Also loved how you outlined Costa Rica’s commitment and leadership in stopping deforestation.

But like a traveler passing through, you didn’t get it all right. Besides missing the subtleties of being a happy Costa Rican, I thought the following was a little strange: My hunch is that in 25 years, we’ll see large numbers of English-speaking retirement communities along the Costa Rican coast.

That line would have made sense 25 years AGO. And you obviously weren’t hanging in Guanacaste — foreign owned communities and hotels are the name of the game (I remember Guanacaste 24 years ago — Nick, at this rate, Guanacaste should resemble something like Las Vegas 25 years from now).

So, once again, hats of to the world’s happiest people — they’ve certainly made my world here in Costa Rica a whole lot better.

Uh-oh…

I’m concerned about a coupling things.  The first Uh-oh:  I’m getting hooked on this blog. Every time I turn on the computer there’s something vital about the environment in Central America that I’m compelled to write about.  Is this a really critical time or am I just another eco-blogging-junkie??  Probably a sad combination of the two.

Here's what development in Costa Rica can look like -- untamed projects in the Osa Peninsula. Francisco Angulo from La Nación wrote a detailed article.

Here’s the other Uh-oh:  the news has already been circulating among environmentalists in Costa Rica, but the online journal El Pregón has put it in writing: another gold mine is in the works in the Osa Peninsula.  Where’s that??

In case you’re not from these parts, the “Osa” is the wild west in Costa Rica — it’s pretty far out there in the furthest southern tip of the country — the Corcovado National Park takes up a big chunk of it.

Sadly, over the past few years, there’s been some very destructive behavior going on in the name of development and tourism.  The Osa has got its fair share of eco-pricks, if you will.

In fact, the Tribunal Ambiental Administrativo, Costa Rica’s environmental criminal court, actually put an injunction on any further development in the Municipality of Osa because simply put, the mayor went wild.  He and the town council approved construction permits without sound environmental impact studies…or any studies at all. The destruction of Osa coral reef is visible from the air as mud and debris runoff is visibly choking the areas off the coast.

Yesterday I wrote about Costa Rica’s magnificent ability to organize countries worldwide to stop deforestation.  The Osa Peninsula is the flipside to the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde we’ve come to know from a country whose slogan is “No ingredients added.”  Sure.

So now El Pregon’s Karla Espinoza reports what’s been circulating on the web and in private conversations:  the government, through la Secretaría Técnica Ambiental, has received application #580-2009, on behalf of some group called Consultorías Turísticas del Pacífico.  Attached to the application is some guy named Raymond Lewis Watts and another dude, Fernando Nietzen Rovira.   Hey, Ray — what’s up??

Basically this means that open-pit gold mining is making a run for it in Osa Peninsula.  Environmentalists are ready.  Undoubtedly the mining company is ready.  Who will prevail??  Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde??

Right on, Costa Rica!

Sure, there’s a lot to complain about  when it comes to the Costa Rican Government’s policies towards the environment. While internationally Costa Rica is known for pristine natural resources…locally we know it’s a bit more complicated. However….

Costa Rica deserves a thumbs up in its role as an international leader in the fight to stop deforestation. In a December 27th Op/Ed in La Nación the former Minister of Mines, Environment and Telecommunications (MINAET), Carlos Manuel Rodriguez gave us a history lesson on his country’s fight to stop deforestation.   There’s actually a happy ending.

First, the bad news:  Danish scientists just announced that 12% of all greenhouses gases each year are attributed to deforestation.  You chop down a forest, you release CO2 into the atmosphere.  There’s a lot of chopping going on in the world.

For more than 10 years Costa Rica has been the shining example in policies and projects to stop deforestation. Its 1997 law explicitly prohibits the chopping of trees without permits and actually requires that the government pay forest owners not to cut down trees.  Costa Rica has been leading the way at the UN Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) and in 2005, after years of pushing to include anti-deforestation language in an international plan to halt global warming (along with their partner-in-crime, Papua New Guinea), Costa Rica convinced the IPCC to consider “discussing” deforestation as a part the Kyoto Protocol.  It was only talk, but sometimes actions follow words.  Costa Rica pulled together a coalition of 25 countries to  advocate for stopping deforestation as a significant method of reducing carbon emissions.

Fast-forward to December 2009.  All 192 countries who participated in COP15 have agreed not only to include stopping deforestation as a means to reduce greenhouse gases, but have elaborated in great detail how to do it.  The details coming out of COP15 are coming directly out of the Costa Rican experience which has evolved through five successive Costa Rican governments of different political persuasions (that’s hard).   So, what does this mean?   It could mean 15-20 billion US$ per year to cut deforestation in half by 2020.

REDD, Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, is the United Nations programme that may soon collect 15-20 billion dollars each year from polluting nations and distribute it to developing nations.  The very first REDD programs were started in Costa more than 1o years ago.  Let’s hope the international community can get its act together –like Costa Rica did– and formally agree to REDD this year.  They’re close to a deal.

So, yes, I do a lot of complaining in the Dispatch about Costa Rica’s less-than-spectacular environmental policies.  But I will give credit where credit is due.  Costa Rica deserves a hearty toast…so raise your glass wherever you may be…cheers, Costa Rica, cheers.

Urgent Alert: Another Environmentalist Killed in Guatemala

It’s hard enough to work long hours, get paid very little and have minimal support as a national park ranger in Guatemala.  It may also cost you your life.

This is the Cerro San Gil park located on Lake Izabal in Guatemala. Samuel Rodríguez Reyes, a park ranger, was killed in his office on January 2nd.

On January 2nd Samuel Rodríguez Reyes, a ranger at the Cerro San Gil National Park, was assassinated in Santo Tomás de Castilla which is located on Lake Izabal.  He worked for La Fundación para Ecodesarrollo y la Conservación (Fundaeco) which  is demanding an immediate investigation into Mr. Rodriguez’s assassination.  Killed in his office, Fundaeco suspects foul play because Mr. Rodriguez has made repeated formal complaints against illegal hunting and logging in the Cerro San Gil park.

His case is not isolated:  the Center for Environmental Legal & Social Action, a local Guatemalan organization says that in the past three years there have been 133 attacks against environmentalists, including 13 deaths.

I’ll keep you posted as more information is released.

The Voice of the People

What do Costa Ricans think about their environment?

**89% say no to open pit mining at Las Crucitas
**89% say no to reducing protected areas and national parks
**88% say no to privatizing national parks
**77% are against oil exploration
**77% are against the over-development of coastal regions

While surging crime and unemployment are first and foremost on people’s minds, a recent Gallop poll of 1009 Costa Ricans from all over the country demonstrate a deep commitment to making the environment a national priority.

The “National Opinion Poll on the Environment” by The Nature Conservancy outlines real concerns of ordinary “Ticos”:

**94% are more worried now than in 2005 about the loss of natural resources — especially beaches and forests lost to over-development

**66% say that the next president must make the natural environment a legislative priority

**30% more Costa Ricans are aware of the importance of recycling than they were 5 years ago

Considering the enormity of the problems, the Costa Rican people don’t share quite the same enthusiasm for their governmental institutions.  While most people know about the Ministry of Mines, Environment and Telecommunications, they said it’s only doing a mediocre to fair job.  Besides, the poll showed that people still don’t understand why MINAET has anything to do with telecommunications.  Neither do I.  On a sad note, Costa Ricans were not aware that they have an Environmental Criminal Court — the Tribunal Ambiental Administrativo (TAA).  The TAA rocks my world.

Isn’t it about time that Costa Rica had its own Ministry of Environment and Peace?  They have a Ministry of Justice and Peace — just inaugurated last September as the world’s first peace ministry.  I bet the poll that follows that institutional change would get very high marks.

How’s your Spanish?  Check out The Nature Conservancy poll here.

Canadian Mining in Costa Rica: the Quaker Connection

Smiling with Wolf. I caught "Walking with Wolf" co-authors Wolf Guindon and Kay Chornook outside of the Monteverde Friends Meeting House on Sunday January 3rd, 2010.

Well, not so much a connection as much as an observation. Okay, there’s no real connection at all, but it makes a hell of a title.

I’m reading “Walking with Wolf,” about Wolf Guindon, one of the Quakers who came from Alabama to settle in Costa Rica’s Tilerán Mountain Range in 1951.  The Quaker settlement became Monteverde, one of our planet’s most cherished & biologically diverse cloud forests (my wife and daughters live in Monteverde while I study at Upeace during the school year). Wolf’s co-author Kay Chornook set Wolf up with a small recording device back in the 90′s to document his thoughts as he roamed the network of footpaths above Monteverde. Once again, as I follow Wolf into the wilderness through his stories, Canadian mining companies meander back into the Dispatch from a Small Planet.

I’ve been writing about Canadian mining companies both here in Costa Rica and in Guatemala — they operate throughout the Americas.

"Walking with Wolf" is one well-told story after another. I'm learning a lot about the place I now call home: Monteverde. ~a.

In the mid 1960′s a Canadian company was exploring sulfur extraction at several “camps” in the Peñas Blancas region.  Here’s the interesting part:  they never started digging because as the Vietnam War was winding down it caused a glut in the price of sulfur.  How’s that?  Turns out the sulfur was being used as a defoliant.  Yup, they stopped using Agent Orange and the price of sulfur plummeted.

Not only was the glut a good thing for the forests and people of Southeast Asia, but for the cloud forests on the eastern side of continental divide above Monteverde.  The mines never happened and the forests were eventually bought by the Monteverde Conservation League and are now a part of the Children’s Eternal Rainforest — the largest privately owned reserve in Central America.

Canadian mining in Central America, however, is not ancient history: Urgent Action Needed Now

Less than a week ago a second anti-gold mine activist was assassinated in El Salvador.  On the day after Christmas Dora Alicia Sorto Recinos, who was eight months pregnant, was assassinated in the community of Trinidad in the department of Cabañas.  She was carrying her two-year old who was shot in the leg.  Her husband is on the board of the Environmental Committee of Cabañas, organizing against Pacific Rim’s El Dorado gold mine and has survived three attacks on his life to date.

Urgent Action is needed:  read the Rights Action alert now.