HACIENDA PINILLA, Guanacaste – The eight day trek from Puebla, Mexico, to Panama over Central America's winding highways may be getting shorter under a new plan conceived by the Costa Rican government.

During the Tuxtla Summit held in Costa Rica's northwest province of Guanacaste, the region's heads of state confirmed their commitment to improving road infrastructure and border crossings along the 3,244 kilometer (2,000 mile) corridor.

Over a distance that takes more than 190 hours to drive in Central America – which would likely require only 35 hours in the United States – road conditions force traffic to drive an average of 17 kilometers per hour.

“Without the infrastructure to connect the areas, despite free-trade agreements, each country will be severely impacted. Business without the infrastructure to support them will not achieve growth in equity nor will they generate social development,” said the Costa Rican Minister of Transportation and Public Works Karla González.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) said the most investment is needed in Costa Rica, where $345 million in road repairs have been identified.

To improve roads, road safety and border crossings, the bank identified $125 million of needed investment in Mexico, $66 million in Guatemala, $222 million in El Salvador, $89 million in Honduras, $177 million in Nicaragua and $46 million in Panama. All told, González pressed for a total of $1.072 billion.

Among the objectives discussed is a reduction in time spent at border crossings, mirroring a pilot project between Honduras and El Salvador which reduced the process from 61 minutes to eight.

“The natural ally of free trade is infrastructure,” said González in a statement. “The investment we make for our countries will reduce travel times, taking an average of 54 hours to travel from Mexico to Panama, and generate savings in operating costs and transportation, reduce emissions and stimulate regional trade.”

Closer to home, in Costa Rica the plan would involve finishing the Caldera and the Costanera Sur highways, two projects that are already underway.

HACIENDA PINILLA, Guanacaste – Against the backdrop of one of the region's worst political debacles in decades, a handful of Latin American presidents met on Costa Rica's north Pacific shore this week and reflected on a peacemaking process gone stale.

Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who mediated between two feuding Honduran parties from his San José living room this month, asked for continued faith in the power of dialogue to resolve the crisis that's gripped the Central American country.

“Today I ask you not to give up on this effort,” Arias told the gathering of leaders, including Mexican President Felipe Calderón, Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes, Panama's Ricardo Martinelli and Colombia's Alvaro Uribe. “Let's not back down in the struggle for a peaceful solution to the Honduran conflict.”

The 11th Tuxtla Summit, which was held through Wednesday this week at Guanacaste's Marriott Resort, was intended to bring the various heads of state together to discuss development opportunities, strategies for confronting the A(H1N1) flu virus and the economic recession.

But conversation began and ended with Honduras.

Reflecting on the June 28 coup, Arias said, “What is frustrating is to see how Latin America looks to be perpetually on the verge of development, trying to cross the threshold. Then it turns on its hinges like a revolving door to go return to the same place it was 10, 20 or 30 years ago.”

However, the very fact he was able to sit down with the feuding parties to try to resolve the crisis represents an important advance, Arias said.

Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was not among the participants in Wednesday's summit, but sent members of his delegation to speak in his place.

More than 10 years ago, Costa Rica passed the Biodiversity Law to better protect its rich wildlife and regulate the responsible use of its natural resources.

The law also redefined the categories of the nation's protected natural areas.

Last week, the government finally issued the rules to create new protected areas under two of these categories; specifically, those intended to regulate marine areas.

By way of an executive decree, the Environment, Energy and Telecommunications Ministry (MINAET) set guidelines for declaring a “marine reserve” or a “marine management area” to better protect the nation's important marine areas and resources.

The decree maps out the criteria that an area must meet to in order to be included in the category of marine reserve or marine management area, and also outlines the objectives that must be followed after such a declaration is granted.

While a handful of other conservation laws mention the management of aquatic areas, these two new categories represent the first of their kind to deal exclusively with the sea.

And for Jorge Jiménez, regional director of MarViva, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting marine resources, it's about time.

The new categories will allow “low-impact ecotourism” and other regulated activities. For example, the marine management areas will allow fishing, as long as fishermen do not use nets or trawlers. It prohibits semi-industrial and industrial fishing, as well as exploration for, and extraction of, oil.

“In the last 500 years, we have learned the importance of the land. We have learned to use and regulate it with strict rules,” he said, referring to agriculture, urban development and protected forests. “In the sea, an area 10 times larger than the land, we don't have this. Where we are going with these two new categories is to put the sea in order as well.”

However, the issue has sparked an institutional tug of war between fishing organizations, government agencies and environmental groups.

Miguel Durán, a biologist for the Costa Rican Tourist Fishing Association (APTC), said he believes that the Costa Rican Fisheries Institute (INCOPESCA) should be the only body to regulate areas that affect fishing grounds.

“I don't understand how MINAET can create an area that affects fishing and expect it to resolve the problems of fishermen,” Durán, who is also a former INCOPESCA manager, said. “Biologists and fisherman are two distinct things, and we already have an institute dedicated to fishing that is better equipped to make these decisions.”

See the July 31 print or digital edition of The Tico Times for more on this story.

In a new revision of the bank's economic outlook, the Central Bank of Costa Rica (BCCR) announced Wednesday that the country's annual inflation rate for 2009 likely will reach 4 to 6 percent by year's end.

This is the second adjustment of the BCCR's Macroeconomic Program of 2009-2010 (available at its Web site: http://www.bccr.fi.cr/flat/bccr_flat.htm), after a first revision in May that predicted inflation at 8 percent for the year, down from the initial January forecast of 9 percent.

Prices from January to June rose 1.21 percent, well below the 6.5 percent registered in the same period of 2008, and the lowest rate since 1971.

Given an anticipated recovery of presently sluggish global economic conditions, the Central Bank predicts prices will rise more quickly in upcoming months.

BCCR Executive President Francisco de Paula Gutiérrez also indicated that the gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to finish the year with a 1.3 percent loss, a slight improvement from the prediction in May of a 1.8 percent loss. GDP through the first six months of the year was down 4.9 percent in comparison to the same period in 2008. It was also estimated that in 2010, GDP will rise 2.6 percent.