Tourism has been considered an antidote for many of Costa Rica's economic problems.

Yet, just how much those Hawaiian shirt-wearing, photo-snapping Gringos (and others) have contributed to local economies is hard to measure.

For the regional Guanacaste tourism board, the answer is quite a lot.

Guanacaste Chamber of Tourism (CATURGUA) attributes a 50 percent drop in poverty over the course of seven years and a 16.2 percent increase in household income between 2006 and 2008 to the thousands of foreigners who visit the northern Pacific peninsula each year.

“Clearly, tourism has become a core axis of the economy of Guanacaste and an engine that has contributed to the improvement of living conditions of the population,” said Ana Saborío, vice president of CATURGUA. “Thanks also to the growth in tourism, migration to the Central Valley also has been reversed. This province has captured many professionals from the metropolitan area.”

According to the National Statistics and Census Institute ( INEC), the percentage of households in extreme poverty in the region of Chorotega in northern Guanacaste dropped by 50 percent during the last seven years, from 12.4 percent of the total population in 2001 to 6.5 percent in 2008.

INEC's household survey also indicates increased income redistributionand employment and housing opportunities, according to CATURGUA.

Because 26.3 percent of the people living in Guanacaste work for hotels, shops and restaurants – all jobs closely linked to tourism – CATURGUA said tourism has played a central role in the economic growth of the region.

“Taking this statistic alone affirms that tourism is the principal source of income for more that 25 percent of the province, a percentage that is significantly larger when you take into account the number of indirect positions tourism generates, which is estimated to be between four and five (per direct position),” Saborío said.

Saborío cautioned against taking the economic growth for granted, calling for infrastructure improvements to roads, aqueducts and wastewater management.

Plans to build a new landfill and five new solid waste collection centers in the Osa region in southern Costa Rica are moving ahead.

Last week, the Municipality of Osa finalized the funding to build the facilities and submitted the last required permit requests to the Ministry of Health.

The project will receive $200,000 from the Andalusian International Cooperation for Development Agency, and ¢125 million ($ 214,170.28) from the Southern Zone Development Authority (JUDESUR).

Alberto Cole, mayor of the Osa, said the municipality has already met with the engineers from the Health Ministry and expects to begin receiving the necessary permits as early as September.

The new landfill will take the place of the trash dump that is located in Palmar Norte, and it will have its own recycling collection center. Other collection centers will be located in Coronado, Drake Bay, Piedras Blancas and Playa Uvita.

“This is all integrated work,” said Alberto Cole, mayor of Osa. “We are (also) promoting a process to reduce the quantity of trash in homes and businesses.”

Cole said the municipality is also devising a plan to offer incentives to citizens who separate recyclable items from trash before they hand it over to the municipality.

Also in the Osa last week, The Costa Rican Fisheries Institute issued 53 new fishing licenses to small commercial fishermen. These new licenses will allow these fishermen to work between Bahía Ballena and Corcovado.

The move comes eight months after the Ministry of the Environment, Energy and Telecommunications (MINAET) tried to confiscate several ships from the area for fishing without permits.

“The truth is that, here, fishing is too important of a job source,” Cole said. “A lot of families have a long tradition of working in the sea and they need to be allowed to work.”

The Costa Rican Ombudswoman's Office announced on Thursday morning that it has serious doubts about a bill that would modify the limits of Las Baulas National Marine Park in Playa Grande, a beach in the northwestern province of Guanacaste.

The bill, which is currently under review by the Legislative Assembly's Environment Commission, would change the status of the national park to that of a national wildlife refuge, which would permit construction within its limits. Building is not allowed in the area under its current designation as a national park.

The office declared that the bill “endangers the integrity of the National Marine Park” and “affects even the aquifers of the zone, which are cataloged as very vulnerable.”

A recent study by the National Groundwater, Irrigation and Drainage Service (SENARA) claims that the fragility of the water table near Playa Grande “does not permit any activity, with the exception of conservation and preservation.”

The ombudswoman's office cited the study along with article three of Costa Rica's biodiversity law and articles 50 and 89 of the constitution – all of which deal with conservation and environmental protection – as reasons for legislators to carefully evaluate the bill before deciding on a verdict.

Recalling the government's Peace with Nature plan, ombudswoman Lisbeth Quesada said lawmakers “must respect pro-nature environmental principles in any proposal that deals with the environment.”

Legislators who support the bill have deemed the project a necessary step if the state is to control development inside the limits of the national park without the need to expropriate private properties. Landowners who live in the park have insisted that the land is worth approximately $1,200 per square meter.

Maureen Ballestero, a National Liberation Party (PLN) legislator and president of the Environment Commission, told The Tico Times that she “does not agree with the change in category of a national park,” but she said the state needs to find a way to protect the land without having to pay for it (TT July 17).

The winner of a design competition for a new, expansive park to be developed in the southern outskirts of San José was chosen Friday out of a competition pool of 19 companies.

Contestants entered their architectural renderings of how they envisioned what is to become the Parque la Libertad under pseudonyms, with the winner listed as Georges Perec. The winning design was submitted under the umbrella of the San José-based architectural firm Sanjosereves, which was represented at the ceremony by Diego Vanderlaat, Marisol Rímolo and Ana Patricia Arias.

According to the judges, Sanjosereves' plans were favored for its productive use of the space that the park will occupy between the two southern greater metropolitan area districts of La Unión and Desamparados.

“The proposal selected makes the wise decision of discovering the soul of the place, and with a minimum of manipulation revealing the area's environmental values and utilizing existing structures (where possible) to accommodate proposed uses. (The proposal) avoids the temptation of including artifacts alien to the space and its history,” the certificate said.

The Parque La Libertad will promote a few central ideas focusing on the arts, urban living and the environment. It is scheduled to have an arts center, a children's library, and technical training centers focusing on health and environmental initiatives, along with art and urban beautification projects.

Computer training and English classes will also be offered by the Education Ministry to help train citizens for new jobs.

The area around La Unión and Desamparados where the park is to be built is home to nearly 400,000 people, in an area of the city the Planning Ministry says is in a state of underdevelopment.