Forest Fires Blackening Large Swath of Nat’l Park

Some 500 hectares of the Santa RosaNational Park in the northwestern province of Guanacaste have been scorched by a fire, the daily La Nación reported.

The fire reached an area of vegetation that is in the process of natural regeneration.

Last Monday, officials of the Guanacaste Conservation Area, volunteers and firefighters put out a separate fire in the Santa Elena section of the park that burned two acres.

Roberto Dobles, the Environment Minister, said that this year 70 fires have scorched protected areas. They have been caused by agricultural burns or by people lighting fires in retaliation because they were prohibited from hunting.