Eco-Crime

Since 2013, Costa Rica’s dry tropical forests have been under siege from loggers looking to cash in on skyrocketing demand for precious hardwoods, especially cocobolo (Dalbergia retusa), also known as tropical rosewood. The illegal logging of cocobolo and other precious hardwoods threatens Costa Rica’s famous but understaffed national parks as loggers look to protected areas as the last untapped source of valuable lumber for export.

Police in Limón have rescued a second green sea turtle in as many weeks that was likely destined for a soup pot.

The endangered sea turtle sustained two large gashes, likely from harpoons used to catch it, along with injuries caused by cords used to tie it up. The turtle is undergoing treatment at the Jaguar Rescue Center in Puerto Viejo.

QUITO, Ecuador – Ecuador seized around 200,000 shark fins and arrested three suspected traffickers in Manta, the country's main fishing port last week.

Police arrested four men Thursday for killing two green sea turtles on Costa Rica's Caribbean Coast. Two of the suspects had rap sheets for drug charges.

"[Police] found an enormous leatherback turtle in the trunk," said a press release from the Public Security Ministry. "It was alive and flapping its fins as if asking for help."

In the early morning Wednesday, police nabbed a woman with the last names Cerdas Viales, who is suspected of poaching sea turtle eggs on Moín Beach near the Caribbean port city of Limón.

Police arrested a man with the last names Calvo Alvarado on Monday for selling turtle eggs outside of the Río Blanco stadium in Limón, on the country's Caribbean coast. He faces up to two years in jail.

A man who went missing more than a week ago while illegally mining gold inside the boundaries of the Osa Peninsula's Corcovado National Park was rescued this week by officials from Costa Rica’s National System of Conservation Areas.

Officials from Costa Rica’s National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC) issued citations to 67 people for crimes against the environment in a two-week operation, according to the organization’s control and protection unit.