The Administrative Environmental Tribunal of the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE) last week reached a settlement with the U.S. firm Standard Fruit Company regarding a massive fish kill in the Pacuare River, in the Caribbean province of Limón.
In a conciliation agreement signed last week between the transnational company and MINAE — approved by the tribunal — representatives of the company agreed to pay $115,000 to repopulate the Pacuare with various species of fish, La Nación reported.
The settlement also established that Standard Fruit must initiate the construction of a new airport, valued at $148,000, to prevent future ecological disasters related to the use of pesticides at the company’s banana plantations.
Literally countless fish died, allegedly as a result of an accident at the company’s airport in Batán de Limón, when a large amount of the pesticide Bravo 500 spilled from a storage tank into the river in January 2003.
Representatives of the Regional Environmental Council of Limón said the settlement is demonstrative of a timid government, wary of chasing the fruit company out of the country, La Nación reported.
Still, it may have set a precedent. “This is the first time anybody has had to pay a dime to try to figure out how to mitigate this,” said Emily Yozell, an attorney working for Justice for Nature, a non-governmental organization that has fought legal battles on behalf of community residents affected by fish kills in the region.
