By Wendy Anders

Officials of the Guanacaste Conservation Area published a statement on their website this week saying they had not been consulted on a proposed mega-port that would serve as the Pacific end of the proposed dry canal project that is once again gaining momentum in Costa Rica.

Park officials said the proposed project as presented by the CANSEC company to the National Concessions Council of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, states it plans to build a “mega port” in Bahia Santa Elena of the edge of La Cruz, Guanacaste, along Costa Rica’s northern Pacific coast.

The Santa Elena Bay is located within the Guanacaste Conservation Area, an extensive dry tropical forest which includes the previously created National Parks of Santa Rosa, Guanacaste, Rincón de la Vieja, and the Bahía Junquillal National Wildlife Refuge.

The Guanacaste Conservation Area was declared a Natural Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999 and forms part of the National System of Conservation Areas of the Ministry of Environment and Energy.

Park officials continued in their statement to say that they learned from mainstream press reports that the dry canal proposal shows the construction of roads, a port, an airport, sheds, hotels, and other infrastructure on lands that are currently part of the Santa Rosa National Park (specifically, the area of Murciélago).

Additionally, said the park authorities, the Santa Elena Bay has been determined a site of importance for conservation, and the Guanacaste Conservation Area has been working with the community there for three years to grant the are the status of “marine management area.”

Describing the proposed mega-port and dry canal as “hasty, irresponsible and reckless,” the Guanacaste Conservation Area said they reject the proposal; if built as proposed the proposed dry canal infrastructure would destroy large areas of this natural heritage site, .