| Environmental officials say employees at Talamanca Municipality, and some from their own ranks may have rubber-stamped permits that allowed homes and hotels that could damage prized forests and wetlands along the Caribbean coast.
An April 7-11 sweep of construction sites in the Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge and nearby towns led to a clampdown on several building projects of private homes and lodges, including the reputedly ecofriendly Hotel Almendros y Corales.
The inspections also revealed that some landowners obtained building permits for projects that encroach on the 50-meter no-building zone along the shore, according to press release from the Environmental Administrative Tribunal, the judicial arm of the Environment and Energy Ministry (MINAE).
“There are lots more than we expected,” José Lino Chaves, the tribunal's chief justice said of allegedly illegal buildings, tree cutting and burning.
The tribunal said it will probe high-level employees of the Limón branch of the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC), also a part of MINAE, the release said.
SINAC directors were not available for comment, nor were members of the Talamanca council, whom the environment judges suspect might also be turning a blind eye to harmful construction in the region.
See today's Tico Times for more on this story. |
| 
| 
| Exchange Rates
