Legislators on the Legislative Assembly’s budget committee are challenging a reduction in 2027 funding for the scientific networks that monitor earthquakes, volcanoes and weather in Costa Rica, a debate that took on new urgency hours later when a magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck off Uvita and triggered dozens of aftershocks.
The questioning surfaced during the committee’s review of the 2027 national budget, in a hearing with Vice Minister of the Presidency Alejandro Barrantes. Ángela Aguilar, a legislator for the Partido Liberación Nacional, put the reduction for the Red Sismológica Nacional at the University of Costa Rica and the Ovsicori observatory at the National University at ₡598 million, roughly $1.33 million. Aguilar asked what technical basis supports the decrease and whether any study assessed its effect on the two institutions’ operations.
The Comisión Nacional de Emergencias offered a different reading. Its executive director, Juan José Monge, told legislators the money stems from a temporary obligation under the National Emergencies and Risk Prevention Law, and that 2027 will settle a debt owed since 2021. Barrantes said the CNE has already transferred about ₡3 billion, roughly $6.65 million, to the universities under that obligation, and described the 2027 amount as the final installment of a transitional provision.
The mechanism dates to a 2011 reform that directed part of the CNE’s income toward monitoring networks. Ovsicori was to use its share for seismic and volcanic equipment, the RSN and the university’s seismic engineering laboratory for equipment and network upgrades, and the Instituto Meteorológico Nacional for its weather observation network.
Once the final payment is made, Barrantes said, no current law requires the transfers to continue. That prompted legislators to ask how the networks will pay for equipment renewal going forward. María Eugenia Román of the Frente Amplio said she understood the legal obligation had run its course but that the need to acquire, maintain and replace meteorological equipment remains, and that the work is directly tied to emergency prevention. She raised the same concern for Ovsicori.
Her party colleague Antonio Trejos framed the question around the hazards Costa Rica faces, asking what would happen during floods, eruptions or earthquakes if the CNE could not rely on the surveillance systems the IMN, Ovsicori and RSN provide. He called funding for that equipment a matter of national security.
A bill that would create a permanent funding source is pending in the Assembly. Expediente 24.738, filed in December 2024 and approved in committee in February 2026, would direct 0.6% of premiums on certain insurance lines, including life, health and fire policies, to Ovsicori, the RSN, the engineering laboratory and the IMN for monitoring equipment.
The bill notes that the universities cover staff costs for the seismic networks, but that instruments installed on volcanoes, mountains and other exposed sites wear out and become obsolete. Trejos said the executive branch does not support the proposal, even as the current funding source expires.
The morning’s tremor illustrated what those networks do. Ovsicori located the main shock 53 km (33 mi) southwest of Uvita at 2:26 a.m. and had counted 75 aftershocks by 8 a.m., while residents along the southern Pacific coast reported hearing the observatory’s early-warning alarm repeatedly through the night. The RSN reported a preliminary magnitude of 5.2, and Ovsicori a preliminary 5.3 before revising to 5.5.
The budget committee’s review of the 2027 spending plan continues in the coming weeks, and the funding bill awaits floor scheduling.
