New government

Unfortunately, we were not able to have specific statements from the incoming government office for The Tamarindo News. However, aware of the importance of making known the claims of the new president-elect of Costa Rica as to matters related to Guanacaste, we have textually compiled information published elsewhere.
Laura Chinchilla highlights the idea of making Guanacaste a power as to the production of clean energy, and creating the first aerospace services industry. "Together with Franklin Chang’s lab, we want to make the first aerospace service industry here. We are making it possible with the support of all the people of Guanacaste.” Creating a marketing center for agricultural products like CENADA, strengthening irrigation schemes by improving the infrastructure that need attention, and strongly supporting development banks for small and medium-sized farmers were some of the commitments made by the liberationist female candidate, Laura Chinchilla, while touring the cantons of Nicoya, Hojancha and Nandayure. "We definitely have a commitment to Guanacaste and a special agenda for the province. Today, before you, I pledge myself to include this province as a priority on our government agenda," she said.
She added that "some of our pending tasks are: to strengthen the MAG, in order to make it a true regulating body for agricultural policies, have a more approachable CNP, implement a national plan of technological transfer, improve the roads and expand the financial plans for small and medium-sized producers. These are my commitments to Guanacaste," Chinchilla said during a meeting with local coffee producers and small entrepreneurs. Moreover, she made emphasis on the importance for the country to have a food safety program that may allow Costa Ricans to have a minimum guarantee of supply and a just remuneration for national producers.
During her tour throughout the province, the candidate committed herself, before the Youth Symphony 25 de julio, which is constituted by Nicoyanos students, to foster the ratification of the Creation Law of the National System of Musical Education; by doing so, drug addiction and school dropouts could be confronted effectively.
"We will increase the marine area under protection by ensuring their sustainable use and conservation; we will provide conservation areas with the human and financial resources necessary. We will propose to the Legislative Assembly a comprehensive regulatory body for the protection of protected areas, since the current body is missing. We will strengthen payment programs for environmental services as carbon fixation, and the protection of aquifers and watersheds, biodiversity and scenic beauty. We will solve the biodiversity issue in private biological corridors through the payment of environmental services for conservation. ASADAS and municipalities will be well-established as to its sewerage activities. We will implement a hydrological solution to the current water demand for irrigation purposes and human consumption within the right riverbank of Tempisque River and the coastal zone of Guanacaste; we will foster innovative financial systems encouraging good water management practices in the industry and reducing pollution discharges," she said.
Alfio Piva, Vice President-elect, devoted 20 years of his life to the national institute for biodiversity, INBio. We retrieved segments from one of his interviews out of the site www.laurachinchilla.com : "Making Costa Rica the only country in the world in which biodiversity is the engine of our strength; we have to use it sustainably.  We have to use electricity from renewable sources … we have neglected it a bit, ICE is now taken it up again. We could use solar energy; not much has been done, we could do much more! We will foster the operation of electric trains, which could also be solar-powered.  We could use our volcanoes for energy. They are already there, and we are even afraid of them. Ecotourism is an important source of income… of green jobs ... There are a lot of things we can do to clean up our country, so it is not so dirty. Twenty years ago, when we talked about ecotourism, people laughed at us. They used to tell us that who would want to come and get covered with mud and to be bitten by mosquitoes. Today that is why people come for.  It's very nice. They would tell me that there were no up-and-running accommodations, Well, Costa Ricans settled in every corner. The most important ingredient that distinguishes us is Costa Ricans’ love for others, for visitors.”
What will be your priority? “Science and Technology. We want Science and Technology to be an engine of development, the illusion of new generations. We hope to make the best decisions in regards to the conservation of the climate. We want the country to be a true leader as to climate change matters."
Are you going to foster the creation of more national parks?  "Costa Rica has a great development of national parks; it would be difficult to promote the creation of new ones."
What do you think of parks, like Las Baulas, where there is so much discussion? "I was part of the initiative Peace with Nature. We presented a very important proposal, but some political twists and turns made it be left aside. Some things were done, others were not. There are several parks, such as Las Baulas, that are inhabited by people. The state has never had the money to buy these lands; if we neglect them, they are going to be lost. We have to reach a compromise wherein we have a category of protected areas, not national parks, where people can live in. France and Spain have had to reach such agreements.  I don´t want to introduce people to the parks. Those areas that are not inhabited will remain the same. But I don´t agree in forcing people to leave places like Osa, where the government itself gave them the land many years ago. Ostional is another case. The Sala IV asks us to vacate Ostional, to evict people who have lived there since before Colonial times; these are people who have taken care of the turtles and who live out of a structure they have created together with the UCR and that has become a role model for the world. Let us all Costa Ricans agree. The country’s governance implies the consent of many Costa Ricans, not everybody’s because unanimity is never achieved."

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