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Watch as Camera Thieves Impact Wildlife Studies in Costa Rica

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Certain things are guaranteed when camera trapping in Costa Rica. Some things are magnificent, for instance, with enough time and even the smallest patch of forest, you’re going to record an ocelot. Other things are downright infuriating, for example, with enough time, working in just about any forest in Costa Rica, your camera trap is going to get stolen. I haven’t kept track, because some statistics are too heartbreaking to tally, but I must have had over thirty cameras stolen over the last eight years or so. Theft is simply something that needs to be factored into any wildlife monitoring project using camera traps and its effects are manyfold. First, and for me most devastating, is the loss of data. If I sit and think about the content of the SD cards on all my stolen cameras, a single tear begins to form in the corner of my eye. Then there’s the loss of the equipment, the associated cost, and the difficulty in acquiring replacement gear. Each of my cameras, with the suppor...
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Rincón de la Vieja Erupts Twice Ahead of Free National Parks Day

The Rincón de la Vieja volcano erupted twice today and the Observatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica ( Ovsicori-UNA ) reported no ashfall and no lahars from either event. The larger of the two came at 7:38 a.m. and lasted under a minute. Ovsicori classified it as moderate. A smaller eruption had already occurred at 12:30 a.m. Neither eruption was visible on the observatory’s webcams. Cloud cover sat over the summit all morning, so nobody got a look at the column. That happens often during the rainy season, and it is one reason the seismic and infrasound networks matter more than the cameras this time of year. The volcano stays at caution, which is level 3 on Ovsicori’s four-step scale. Ovsicori moved it up from level 2 in early August after counting 48 eruptions in roughly a month, including 23 in a single week. Volcanologist Cyrill Müller said at the time that a volcano at level 3 can produce eruptions, lahars and ashfall — a plain description of the r...
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Costa Rica Community Struggles With Water Shortages and Contamination Concerns

Residents of Aserrí are facing prolonged water shortages that have disrupted homes, schools and businesses, while the local government considers handing control of its struggling water system to Costa Rica’s national water utility. The municipality has acknowledged that the problem has existed for years but says it has become worse during the current dry period. Water rationing has been in place in different parts of the canton since April, with some residents receiving water for only a few hours, often early in the morning. Families have responded by filling bottles, barrels and storage tanks whenever water becomes available. Residents who cannot afford storage equipment are more exposed to the outages and depend heavily on municipal water trucks. Schools and local businesses are also feeling the effects. At least one public school has asked children to bring drinking water from home and has occasionally suspended lessons when its stored supply runs out. Hair salons, barber s...
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Why Costa Rica’s Solar Potential Remains Almost Entirely Untapped

Costa Rica has some of the best solar radiation conditions anywhere in the world and already runs on nearly 100 percent renewable electricity. Yet solar power contributes less than one percent of the national grid, a gap that has little to do with sunshine and everything to do with law. The Costa Rican Electricity Institute, known as ICE, has held a legal monopoly over the commercialization of electricity since 1949, and it remains in force today. Private generators face a hard ceiling, limited to 30 percent of total generation capacity, with foreign investment inside that private share separately capped at 65 percent. Any generation project larger than five megawatts must connect through ICE’s own transmission network and receive ICE’s authorization, since ICE owns every transmission line in the country and is the only entity permitted to trade electricity in the regional market. Private companies are, in effect, limited to generation only, and are mandated to sell...
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Costa Rica Court Questions Tourism Projects on Public Forest Land

Costa Rica’s Constitutional Chamber will examine whether some tourism projects allowed on state-owned forest land should continue to be classified as low-impact activities. The case challenges rules covering canopy tours, hanging bridges, observation platforms in trees, rappelling areas, campsites and tourist lodges. These projects can currently be authorized on certain public forest properties located outside national parks and other protected areas. The challenge was filed by the Asociación Cívica de Hermosa, a community organization based in Playa Hermosa. It argues that the government regulations make it possible to build tourism infrastructure on environmentally sensitive public land without enough legal or scientific support. The court accepted the case for review on Friday, August 21. It gave the Ministry of Environment and Energy, known as MINAE, and the Attorney General’s Office 15 days to submit their positions. Accepting the case does not mean the court agrees with ...
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Costa Rica Asked to Explain Fishing Boats Seen in Puntarenas Estuary

The appearance of two fishing boats in the Puntarenas estuary has led a Costa Rican ocean conservation advocate to ask authorities for more information about the vessels, their owners and why they entered the area. Jorge Serendero Hülssner, director of Fundación For the Oceans and a member of the Marine Commission of the Presidential Council on the Ocean, raised the concern in a recent opinion column. Serendero described the two boats as being of Chinese origin and identified one as TUNG HAI 168. However, he did not accuse either vessel of illegal fishing or any other crime. Instead, he asked authorities to clarify who owns and operates the boats, where they came from, what permission they had to enter the estuary and whether they had previously fished or transferred catches elsewhere in the region. Public vessel-tracking information reviewed after the alert adds an important complication. Global Fishing Watch and commercial tracking services list TUNG HAI 168 as operating und...
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Ring of Fire Earthquakes Put Costa Rica’s Seismic Risk in Focus

The Ring of Fire–the 25,000-mile horseshoe-shaped belt that runs from Southeast Asia up the Pacific Coast to far Northeast Russia, over to Alaska and down the coast all the way to the tip of Chile– is in a turbocharged state, tectonic plates crashing and subducting, wreaking havoc on the earth’s surface far above. First Venezuela and now Colombia. Since April, Indonesia, the Philippines, Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia and Indonesia again, all rocked by quakes measuring over 7 on the Richter scale. Locally, the Colombia earthquake received major notice, partly due to the sheer number of videos showing the quake from all angles as it shook for roughly two minutes, collapsing buildings onto streets full of frightened onlookers who prayed, screamed and moved frantically to avoid being swept up in the debris. This quake was at a depth of 100 kilometers, meaning that the collision of the plates must have been especially violent. By comparison, the double 7-plus quakes that hit Vene...
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