Association for the Protection of the Leatherbacks do not give up despite the current ruling

On May 5, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Costa Rica ordered the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Telecommunications (MINAET) to initiate the proceedings for the expropriation of private land within the Las Baulas Marine National Park (PNMB, in Spanish) in Guanacaste.

 
This resolution responds to an appeal filed in March 2005 by AIDA and its participating organizations in Costa Rica, Center for Environmental Law and Natural Resources (CEDARENA) and Justice for Nature (JPN) against the National Environmental Technical Secretariat ( SETENA), the Municipality of Santa Cruz, the Ministry of  Treasury and MINAET, for violation of the constitutional right to a healthy and ecologically balanced environment, due to the lack of protection of Las Baulas Marine National Park and the turtles nesting site.

According to the appeal, the Municipality of Santa Cruz and SETENA granted building permits within the park to individuals, ignoring the impact that these tourist developments would cause to the Leatherbacks. So, with the decision of the Court, these permits are not enforceable. "We hope that the Municipality and SETENA have already received a clear message as to the fact that when dealing with national parks they should act carefully and stop approving projects that threaten the purpose of the park," said Rolando Castro, CEDARENA attorney.

 
"The expropriation order shall be complied with by MINAET immediately in order to prevent it from happening the same as in other nesting beaches," said Gladys Martinez lawyer of AIDA (Inter American Association for Environmental Defense). "Costa Rica, including each of its authorities, is required to protect these species that are patrimony of humanity, besides being a tourist attraction and therefore a valuable economic resource for the country," she added.

The information made everyone take different positions and raised doubt and discomfort among the property owners, who, despite the shadowy atmosphere, will not give up.

Jacques C. Fostroy, vice president of the Association for the Protection of the Leatherbacks, in a letter sent to Tamarindo News, warns us about the consequences this decision could have for all the property owners in the Las Baulas Marine National Park.

"As you know, our area is under threat by a private group funded by extremist selfish people. This small but well-funded group has been lobbying intensively for the past five years for the expropriation of all the properties surrounding Las Baulas Marine National Park."

In the letter, he explains that "What was once only focusing on the first 75 meters of land located away from the public area is now a battle to prevent the expropriation of all properties that are up to 575 meters away from the public area. This threat is real and can be translated word by word from a recent ruling of the Costa Rican Court requesting 500m of "buffer zone" for the properties adjacent to the Las Baulas Marine National Park. The ruling came after a written request submitted by Clara Padilla, one of the leaders of the group mentioned above.”

The ruling orders the Ministry of Treasury to include in the next ordinary or extraordinary budget of the Republic the necessary funds to compensate those owners of built and not built lands located within the area declared as a Las Baulas Marine National Park, with the objective of consolidating it territorially."

According to Jacques C. Fostroy "For the foreseeable future, their properties and houses will have a value of zero or a near-zero resale value, while the Constitutional Court is awaiting the delivery of this litany of technical reports of which there is no absolute certainty in predicting exactly when are they going to be issued or if they are going to be next," he said.

The vice president of the Association for the Protection of the Leatherbacks warns about the feeling of uncertainty they are experiencing, “Only after being submitted these reports, the Constitutional Court will decide whether to expropriate the properties and / or demolish the residences or not. Meanwhile, just forget the resale value. The investments were made in an indefinite state of uncertainty with virtually no resale value until this great shadow of doubt may be removed from the titles."

However, it is not just about waiting for the performance of the corresponding entities, Fostroy goes one step further and ensures that, at the end, they are not going to be able to recover the investment of every single property owner, "in Costa Rica, expropriation means that your property will be valued according to the price determined by a judge and in Colones. The payment you and your heirs may receive will be based on the amount of money allocated each year by the national budget for expropriations. In other words, if we apply the average amount stipulated in the budget during the last three administrations, which is of two million dollars per year for the entire country (with a reserve of 75 years for all properties that have been expropriated and not yet paid) their descendants will receive the current value in colones approximately in two hundred years," said Jacques C. Fostroy.

But in the midst of this situation, the members of the Association for the Protection of the Leatherbacks ensure that not everything is lost; on the contrary, "We have been working diligently with the Costa Rican government to find a rational and viable solution to protect the Leatherback turtles and respect our rights as property owners."

That is why they are seeking for your help. "It is imperative for us to to contact you by phone or email, so that your questions can be answered and your views can be taken into account. Someone from our organization will contact you as soon as you give us your data. All information will be kept in total confidentiality. If we do not hear anything from you, your opinion will not be registered. This is our only opportunity to negotiate a rational alternative to this disastrous decision."