Costa Rica expropriates land to protect turtles - Reuters

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Costa Rica expropriates land to protect turtles
Thu Oct 11, 2007 9:11pm EDT

By John McPhaul

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (Reuters) - Costa Rican President
Oscar Arias has ordered the expropriation of lucrative
beach-front land to protect the endangered leatherback
sea turtle, the government said on Thursday.

Arias began expropriation procedures for some 30 hectares
(74 acres) of land in northwestern Costa Rica, the most
important leatherback sea turtle nesting site on the Pacific
Rim, Energy and Environment Minister Roberto Dobles said.

"We are only complying with the law that established Las
Baulas (national marine park) in 1995," Dobles told Reuters.

Some of the expropriated land owners, mostly Europeans
and U.S. citizens, had resisted the expropriation even
though the land was made a national park by law in 1995.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN1144568420071012

[GliderGuider]

1. Way cool! My partner's daughter just got back from there working as a volunteer

She was working with a sea turtle conservation NGO called Pretoma. she spent two months living on a beach with a seven person team patrolling all night with a head-lamp looking for egg-laying females. They tagged the mothers, moved the eggs to a hatchery for protection from animal and human predators, and took the hatchlings back to the water to start their new lives. Their beach was totally without amenities, and she was three hours walk from the nearest village. The team lived under tents made of advertising tarpaulins stretched over driftwood, and subsisted on an unvarying diet of rice and beans. She said she's never had such a good time!

Good for Costa Rica for resisting the pressure to privatize all those beaches to expand the tax base. Well done, Senores Arias y Dobles!
:toast: