LIKE a child caught in a legal battle between divorced parents, the Gandoca‑Manzanillo National Wildlife Refuge, in the Caribbean province of Limón, remains at the center of a struggle among concerned residents, environmentalists, developers and government agencies that claim equal dedication to the area’s welfare.
The conflict, which began more than a decade ago, has its roots in Gandoca‑Manzanillo’s status as a “mixed” refuge, a title it was awarded in 1994. The designation allows ownership and sale of private property within parts of the refuge.
Recent complaints from environmental groups include the alleged drainage and drying of wetlands, pollution of area streams and illegal construction in the Maritime Zone, a stretch of 200 meters from the high‑tide line that is state‑owned.
The Municipality of Talamanca, which has jurisdiction over the area, has allegedly granted construction permits for areas it shouldn’t have inside the refuge, and signs advertise lots for sale in certain areas of the Maritime Zone, according to a letter written by the Conservationist Labor Union of the Ministry of the Environment and Energy (SITRAMINAE) to Environment Minister Carlos Manuel Rodríguez last October, after union representatives inspected the refuge in September 2004.
According to Edwin Cyrus, regional director of the Amistad‑Caribe Conservation Area, the Environment Ministry (MINAE) announced it would grant no more land‑use permits after January 2004 until completion of evaluations of the controversial management plan – a set of guidelines for zoning and development in the refuge. The deadline for evaluations has been scheduled for April 1.
On a Tico Times visit to Gandoca‑Manzanillo last week, smoking piles of branches and chopped‑up trees tossed across a construction site on private property inside the refuge were observed. Oscar Brown, an official from the MINAE office in Manzanillo, said no one cut those trees. “The wind blew them down. Ask anybody in this area and they’ll agree – trees here cannot grow strong roots. Our soil is too swampy,” he explained.
Ironically, MINAE issued a warning against illegal felling for this construction site recently, Brown said, adding that a permit is required for felling whether it is inside or outside a conservation area. “Now they are no longer cutting down trees, everything is in order. We have issued their land‑use permits according to the management plan,” he said, confirming land‑use permits were granted to those who met the necessary requirements during the last year – in contradiction with Cyrus’ statement regarding a temporary freeze on the permits.
The Manzanillo office of MINAE grants land‑use permits in the area with the recommendation of an area committee formed by representatives of the Ecological Development Association of Cocles, Manzanillo and Gandoca (ADECOMAGA), the Manzanillo Association of Community Development and MINAE. After obtaining land‑use permits, anyone interested in building in the area must also obtain a construction permit from the Talamanca Municipality, according to municipal inspector Dennis Peralta.
Aside from requiring permits for felling, Environment Ministry spokeswoman Patricia Alpízar told The Tico Times, the current Forestry Law strictly forbids burning refuse inside a conservation area. However, Adelino Aguirre, forester for the Manzanillo office of MINAE, said “Although it’s a refuge, garbage can be burnt inside private property. People live here and it’s impossible to check every home for burning.”
Another source of conflict, the Las Palmas four‑star hotel inaugurated in 1990 in Punta Uva, inside the refuge, has been the center of a 12‑year legal battle over alleged environmental violations. The $6 million hotel, expanded since its inauguration to include 80 rooms and two pools, was granted permits by MINAE for its construction, which started in 1988. However, since 1992, different environmental groups have accused owner Jan Kalina, from the Czech Republic, of draining marshlands, cutting down trees and building in the Maritime Zone.
The conflict culminated last April, when the Supreme Court’s Civil and Administrative Law Branch (Sala I) confirmed an order to demolish Las Palmas. The order has not yet been put into effect. On March 5, 1993, the Ministry of Natural Resources (now MINAE) originally ordered the hotel’s demolition and a return of the property to its original state before construction began. In the years that followed, the ministry’s order was postponed by a series of court battles.
Meanwhile, Las Palmas Hotel still stands, and Kalina says he is not going anywhere. “This place was not officially declared part of the refuge until 1994. Basically, we have been fighting more than 12 years and ruining my economy for nothing,” he told The Tico Times, adding that he received a letter in January from Minister Rodríguez confirming this information. However, conservation area director Cyrus told The Tico Times the Supreme Court order upholding demolition is final, although the deadline for Kalina’s departure has not yet been established.
Environmentalist and SITRAMINAE volunteer Marta Castro blames the wildlife refuge’s management plan. The plan declares zone one, where the hotels are located, a recreational tourism development area. “The problem is not just Las Palmas. Other hotels and cabinas have required drainage of wetlands for construction,” she said.
In 2002, Castro, along with Candelaria del Azar, Claudia Eppelin and Sophie Andrieux, residents of Cocles, in the vicinity of the refuge, formed the environmentalist organization Grupo Ceibo, one of the first associations to denounce alleged illegal felling in the area. Together with the non‑profit, San José‑based environmental organization Yiski, they have expressed their opposition to the refuge’s management plan for allowing construction of hotels and recreational facilities inside the refuge.
In fact, Yiski president María Elena Fournier denounced damages to the refuge’s wetlands and coastal forests before the ecological branch of the Prosecutor’s Office last October. Yiski’s motion prompted the Ombudsman’s Office to issue a report in January with a series of recommendations for MINAE to repair environmental damage in the refuge.
The women also oppose some members of ADECOMAGA for allegedly seeking their own enrichment from tourism development rather than protection of the refuge. According to ADECOMAGA president Fernando Arias, members of the development association own an estimated 10% of the refuge, which extends over 4,000 hectares on land and 5,000 hectares at sea. The association also has members who do not own property inside the refuge, but do in the surrounding area, while other owners of property inside the refuge are not members of ADECOMAGA.
The association, which Arias said was created in 1994 by a group of area residents concerned about conservation of the newly formed “mixed” refuge, now has 80 members. The group’s objective is to “contribute to the organized collaboration of individuals, national and international organizations, to guarantee sustainable development and respect for the refuge and the Caribbean in general,” Arias said.
Castro alleges she has received death threats, as have the other women she worked with. “No one has any idea of the powerful interests that stand behind this refuge,” she said. “Candelaria (del Azar) was threatened with her life and this forced her to move out of the area; she has a child,” she said, referring to del Azar’s return to Argentina, her country of origin. “Ana Cristina Rossi was threatened too, and so was I.”
Rossi, Costa Rican author of La Loca de Gandoca, a novel that describes a woman’s struggle to preserve the area from tourism development, published a letter in the daily La Nación last January, announcing her decision to conclude her activism toward conservation of the refuge, saying her life was on the line. She recently declined an interview with The Tico Times, saying she feared putting herself in danger. Castro blames ADECOMAGA members. “ADECOMAGA members have very powerful interests,” she said.
Arias, who calls the death threats a “complete fabrication,” says the dynamics of property ownership in Gandoca‑Manzanillo are the same as anywhere else in the country. “In her writings, Ana Cristina Rossi accuses us of being part of the negative forces here. But we are interested in going by the law, and this protected area has a dynamic management plan that is in constant revision,” he said, adding that he “cannot think of any ADECOMAGA members capable of the atrocity of a death threat.”
Next: Proposals for reforming the controversial management plan governing Gandoca‑Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge.
