Costa Rican national parks, leatherbacks, threatened

This is a video about leatherback turtles.

From mongabay.com:

Costa Rica proposes to downgrade Las Baulas National Park, threatening leatherback sea turtles

Jeremy Hance

November 11, 2009

Costa Rica is considered by many to be a shining example of environmental stewardship, preserving both its terrestrial and marine biodiversity while benefiting from being a popular tourist location. However, a new move by the Costa Rican government has placed their reputation in question.

In May of this year the President of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias, presented a law to the legislature that would downgrade Las Baulas from a National Park to a ‘mixed property wildlife refuge’. The downgrading would authorize a number of development projects that conservationists say would threaten the park’s starring resident: the leatherback turtle. The world’s largest sea turtle, the leatherback, is classified as Critically Endangered by the IUCN Red List, and Las Baulas National Park is considered a vital nesting ground for the Pacific population.

“This new law introduced by President Arias will be the death of the Costa Rican National Park System and the protection it provides to your environmental national treasures. The world has looked-up to Costa Rica as an example of how to shape an ecotouristic economy; yet this action by the Arias administration will open Pandora’s box to the elimination and attacks on all the other national parks,” marine biologist Frank Paladino of Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne stated in a letter.

Turtles Are Casualties of Warming in Costa Rica: here.

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• The Future of Sea Turtle Protection in CR (costaricantimes.com)
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• Why Jairo died (repeatingislands.com)
• A Few Costa Rican Fauna in All Their Weird Glory (adullroar.blogspot.com)