What Is The Risk?
This development of 18 lots in San Buenas is surrounded by many trees:
What Is Osa Vive Doing About It?
In response to our complaint, both SINAC and Direccion de Aguas visited the site.
During the site visit, inspectors identified a gravel road crossing a watercourse.
Subsequently, the Dirección de Aguas determined that the watercourse qualifies as a creek. Creeks are legally protected in Costa Rica; they are not supposed to be filled with gravel and turned into roads. Abusing the creek as the developer did may constitute a violation of the Forestry Law. If so, Osa Vive will pursue that matter to its logical legal end.
Inspectors also saw a road built within the protected buffer zone of the creek, a second possible violation.
SINAC indicated that it is preparing a report to be submitted to the Environmental Prosecutor’s Office. In this case SINAC is doing its job, and we applaud them.
(We are looking into another project by this same developer. Indeed, that particular project was stopped [“paralizado”], at least temporarily, by the municipality. In that case the developer was cited for moving 5,000 cubic meters of earth, engaging in unpermitted constructions, passing sewage through a body of water, and cutting down trees.)
We hope that in the future this developer will show more respect for the environmental laws of Costa Rica. We also hope that the costly and time-consuming experience this developer is having will be a lesson to others: It is faster, cheaper, and easier to scrupulously follow the law in the first place.