A little help over here…
I’m not sure how I missed this one two weeks ago, but one of the biggest Rockstars of environmental justice in Costa Rica, José Lino Chávez, the President of the Tribunal Ambiental Administrativo (TAA)…or as I call them the Environmental Criminal Court…made a desperate plea to the Costa Rican people in a La Nación op/ed.
Don't fool yourself -- this is one of Costa Rica's biggest Rockstars. José Lino Chávez of the TAA...the Environmental Criminal Court.
As reported in the Dispatch, the Costa Rican Congress is attempting to push through reforms to strengthen the TAA. In his November 3rd Op/Ed Sr. Lino Chávez clearly laid out what is at stake if this reform does not pass: a much weaker environmental policing in which eco-bullies get away with everything they get away with. Reading through the Dispatch about hotels tearing up mangroves, highway contractors polluting aquifers, and agrochemical runoff contaminating rivers and making people sick…somebody’s got to stop these guys.
The TAA has been that somebody.
The TAA needs long-term appointments in which their jobs are not based on political winds or because of difficult calls they make to stop bullies. They need the might to shut down shut down operations and keep the bullies from beating up the natural environment — the new bill in Congress says they can do that for as little as six months and as much as three years. These are concrete proposals that are on the floor of the Costa Rican Congress right now in a bill called the “The Law to Strengthen the Environmental Court.”
Sr. Lino Chávez pointed out that reports of environmental abuse are up 50% in 2008 over the previous year. Doesn’t he and his team deserve the tools they need take on the growing challenges?
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