When Cáceres won the 2015 Goldman Award for environmental activism, for leading the indigenous Lenca people in a struggle against a massive hydroelectric dam, the organization commended her for carrying on her campaign despite death threats.
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.
GUATEMALA CITY – An indigenous leader opposed to the production of palm oil was killed Friday outside a Guatemalan court that a day earlier ordered the closure of a factory against which he had led protests.
Conservationists hope unmanned aerial vehicles can help fight illegal fishing in Costa Rica's Cocos Island National Park. Similar drones have been used in South Africa to fight rhino poaching in national parks there.
A gang of more than 10 poachers carrying sticks, machetes and guns allegedly attacked the international volunteers on Pacuare beach, Sea Shepard Central America spokesman Jorge Serendero told The Tico Times on Friday.
The Agua Zarca dam, which Goldman prize winner Berta Cáceres has been fighting since 2013, would displace hundreds of indigenous Lenca people and affect other communities downstream.
