VOICING Their Opinions: Timoteo Jackson Pita (left) and Benjamin Mayorga, members of the Bribrí community in the southern Caribbean Talamanca region, yesterday asked legislators why their indigenous communities haven't been consulted about the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA), as they claim the law requires. Legislators should have toured the country to get the indigenous' opinion on this controversial trade pact, they said.

Environmentalists this week are celebrating the 10 th anniversary of a big day for Costa Rica: on Feb. 6, 1997, this nation sold $1 million worth of carbon bonds to Norway, kicking off a U.N. program through which developed countries compensate developing countries' reforestation efforts (TT, Feb. 14, 1997).

Mental Renovation Seminar
7:30 p.m.; also Saturday, 9 a.m.-3 p.m., Kapoli, Escazú, west of San José. Info: 374-1901.

Flamenco Concert
Kantera Group performs a fusion of Flamenco and jazz, 10 p.m., Jazz Café, San Pedro, east of San José. Info: jazz_cafe@racsa.co.cr

By Blake Schmidt
Tico Times Staff | bschmidt@ticotimes.net

A group of about 40 indigenous Costa Ricans traveled from their southern Caribbean communities to the Legislative Assembly in San José yesterday to demand that they be included in the debate over the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA).

During a press conference the group held at the Legislative Assembly, legislators and journalists heard indigenous leaders decry their communities' exclusion from the debate.

“I feel abused. Stop mistreating indigenous people. Stop robbing them,” said Timoteo Jackson, leader of a group of organic banana producers in Bribrí, on the southern Caribbean coast.

The indigenous representatives asked legislators why their communities haven't been consulted in a tour around the country regarding CAFTA. By law, indigenous communities must be consulted about any proposed law that would affect them, they argued, and though there are differences of opinion in the assembly about whether the consultation law should apply to CAFTA, the assembly's technical services department recommended the consultation tour last year.

By Amanda Roberson
Tico Times Staff | aroberson@ticotimes.net

More than 40 sacks of cocaine, each weighing 30 kilograms, were discovered floating in the Pacific Ocean near the Panamanian border Monday, according to a statement from the Public Security Ministry.

A police boat patrolling these waters near Burica, Panama found the drugs, which weighed a total of 1,280 kilograms.

The sacks of cocaine were “just floating in the sea, not close to any boat, so it wasn't obvious who they belonged to,” said Public Security Ministry spokeswoman Marielos Punta Barboza. Police suspect the drugs could have been dropped from a boat or an airplane, she said.

The Costa Rican Coast Guard, together with Drug Control Police, recovered the cocaine and turned it over to the Prosecutor's Office in the southern port city of Golfito. Police are investigating the case, Barboza said.

Environmentalists this week are celebrating the 10 th anniversary of a big day for Costa Rica: on Feb. 6, 1997, this nation sold $1 million worth of carbon bonds to Norway, kicking off a U.N. program through which developed countries compensate developing countries' reforestation efforts (TT, Feb. 14, 1997).

The idea is that trees preserved in countries like Costa Rica consume carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, helping to mitigate the harmful effects of carbon dioxide emitted by industries in countries like Norway, explained Leo Guevarra, a researcher at the Central American Institute of Business Administration (INCAE).

The program has since been used as a “model” and included in the Kyoto Protocol, implemented in 2005, Guevara said. It has grown alongside the National Forest Financing Fund (FONAFIFO), a Costa Rican program through which landowners who protect forestlands can receive payments for environmental services.

In addition to paving the way for the sale of carbon bonds on the international market, Costa Rica also recently partnered with Papua New Guinea to lead the newly formed Coalition of Rainforest Countries, whose members include Kenya, Uganda, Bolivia, Ecuador, Fiji and Malaysia. This group met Jan. 29-30 at INCAE to prepare its strategy for the Climate Change Convention in Bali, Indonesia, in December, the statement said.