The Osa Conservation Area (ACOSA) of the Costa Rica National Area Conservation System (SINAC-MINAE), through the Program of Control and Protection and along with the Ministry of Public Security, unite efforts to run Inter-Institutional operations against the environmental offenders.

Yesterday, October 20, members of the Police force and the Frontier Police along with personnel of the Osa Conservation Area in topics of control and protection along with legal assessment, decided to create a special environmental police to battle the illegal logging, hunt, and smuggling of flora and fauna and strengthen the control and actions to protect Osa`s Protected Areas, specially in the Corcovado National Park.

This commission will be conformed by 15 members that will meet monthly to plan special operations for 2017.

¨This initiative will strengthen the protection activities of the Protected Areas such as Corcovado National Park and the Sierpe Wetland, and it will unify resources for both dependencies in order to formalize land and sea operations and with this control a series of illegal activities that are generating important impact in these protected areas, specially the illegal extraction of gold, logging and the destruction of the wetlands¨ stated Director Paula Mena.

For 2017 they expect to carry out 36 operations with the participation of 50 officials of the Osa Conservation Area, and over 100 officials from the Police Force. Their implementation will depend of the resources available in terms of budget assigned to both dependencies, including everything from the logistics to the necessary human resources.

For the time being, the commission will be receiving the necessary support from the Osa Conservation Area, and assistance is been requested from the new commission of environmental security which deals with environmental offenses by organized crime, which was recently formed by the Minister of Environment, Mr. Edgar Gutierrez,