The Untouched Shores of Osa are a Developer’s Dream.

Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula is one of the country’s last frontiers, offering up untouched territories, dense rain forest, and incredible scenery. The peninsula is also one of the fastest growing areas in the country, attracting tourists and new residents in droves. Development woes weigh heavily on the canton, often challenging the peninsula’s right to maintain its rich environment and ecological heritage.

In 2004, the Osa Municipal Council approved the Plan Regulador, or Regulatory Plan, to manage and maintain its lands. Three months after approval, the municipality received a solicitud de concessión (application for concession) from Las Ventanas de Osa S.A., a company that planned to used 14 Osa hectares (34.5 acres). The municipality also received another solicitud from the Shark Bay Dos Mil S.A. society, asking for permission over three hectares (7.4 acres). In November 2007, two concessions were granted, one to the same company that contracted the new regulatory plan.

Despite the municipality’s actions, the Ministry of Environment and Energy (Minae) claims that they are state controlled lands, not municipal. Stepping in, the General Comptroller for the Republic [of Costa Rica] asked the Osa Municipality to annul its Regulatory Plan, even though the it had secured backing from the National Institute of Housing and Urbanism (INVU) and the Costa Rican Institute of Tourism (ICT) Board of Directors.

“Attending to the petition of this General Comptroller, regarding Minae’s Direction of Conserved Areas in Osa, [we] certified that 84% of the area that corresponds to the Punta Ventanas Regulatory Plan is forest, consequently forming areas that are a matter of the natural patrimony of the State and must be under administration by Minae and not the Municipality, provoking eventual vices and absolute incompetence in the acts that they perpetrated,” heralded official Comptroller document DFOE-SM-3-2008. In other words, the General Comptroller knew that the Osa Municipality had acted in its financial interests, and not in those of its environment. The reprehensible behavior, though caught several years later, is unacceptable.

In similar news, five huge Costa Rica Real Estate projects are also being investigated in Osa. Together, the developments — Osa Tropical, Sueños del Trópico, Vistas sin Fin, Trópicos Verdes and Radiant Sun Valley — will cover more than 800 hectares (almost 2,000 acres). According to the official complaint, the projects’ 1000+ luxury homes will threaten the landscape, surrounding forest, aquatic resources and fragile mountain soils. The concerned Environmental Tribunal expressed its concern, citing the damage that the condominiums and home construction has already made, calling for regulation and change.

Costa Rica walks a tightrope everyday, struggling to find an equilibrium between its booming development and tourist dollars, and it cherished environment, which attracts the development. With many protections already in place, the country has done well for itself, establishing a global reputation as an eco-friendly country. Clearly, however, not all is green and well in Costa Rica, as financial gains often get in the way of well-meaning laws and individuals. To combat these problems, local watchdog organization have cropped up in many towns and cities, helping keep developers within their legal rights.

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Filed under: Costa Rica News on July 22nd, 2008