REUTERS - A group of the countries most at risk from climate change said they would strive to make their energy production 100 percent renewable "as rapidly as possible", as part of efforts to limit global warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius. The Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), which numbers 48 nations, also committed to update their climate action plans submitted as part of the U.N. climate pac...

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...

By Wendy Anders Source: Fuerza Publica Pacific ridley turtles, know in Spanish as the tortuga lora (parrot turtle) due to their green color, have a new hatchery in Jacó thanks to the efforts of the Coast Guard and local government, reported the Ministry of Public Security. High tides this week along Costa Rica’s Pacific coast destroyed the existing infrastructure, where patrols to ensure...

CHURCHILL, Manitoba, Nov. 17 — A tour guide in Canada discovered that man's best friend has pals elsewhere in the animal kingdom when he captured video of a polar bear petting a dog. David De Meulles said he was taking a pair of North Star Tours clients on a polar bear watching expedition during the weekend in Churchill, Manitoba, when the group witnessed the meeting between the bear and dog, w...

Mexico City, Nov. 16 — Monarch butterfly hibernation sanctuaries, located in the states of Mexico and Michoacán, will open their doors for tourism from Nov. 23, 2016 until March 31, 2017, the Mexican Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP) announced yesterday. The monarch butterfly, characterized by its large distinctive orange, black and white patterned wings, migrates every fall up to ...

By Wendy Anders Hydroelectric plant in Costa Rica, photo for illustrative purposes. Costa Rica’s Cote Hydroelectric Plant near Arenal Volcano is the only plant in Costa Rica approved for carbon emission reduction sales through the World Bank’s Prototype Carbon Fund. Run by the National Power and Light Company (CNFL), the 6.8 MW Cote Hydroelectric Plant (CHP) offsets an estimated 9,500 to...

With barely 1,000 individuals left in the world and its habitat dwindling each year, a fight is under way in Costa Rica and the Caribbean to save the exotic green macaw (Ara ambiguus) from extinction. A green macaw at Ara Ambigua. The Ara Project is being carried out in the tropical forest of Manzanillo in Costa Rica's Atlantic Limón province, which has become an important site for the cons...

By Wendy Anders Park guards measure one of the dead sharks to learn more about the animals. Photo by Geiner Golfín, park ranger. Cocos Island’s protected biodiverse waters were the scene of a marine tragedy Tuesday. Rangers who patrol the island and, most importantly, the 12 nautical miles surrounding Cocos, were distraught to find 14 sharks caught on an illegally placed 5 mile longline ...

In a new study, Harvard University researchers find over 90 percent of potential new Canadian hydroelectric projects are likely to increase concentrations of the neurotoxin methylmercury in food webs near indigenous communities. Muskrat Falls in Labrador Canada is the site of the upcoming Muskrat Falls hydroelectric facility. Credit: Prentiss Balcom (Harvard SEAS) The research forecasts pot...

By Wendy Anders Shipwreck last week off Brasilito beach in Guanacaste. Instituto de Oceanología, Playa Potrero. Last week’s capsize of the shrimping boat called the “Azoriano” right off the coast of the northern town of Brasilito, Guanacaste has been cleaned up, reported Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MOPT) officials this week. While the wreck had initially generated fears of fu...

By Wendy Anders Alleged 'greenwashing' by Infinito Gold, file photo. Just when you think it's over … Crucitas returns. On November 17-18, Canada’s Inifinito Gold company will face Broad Front Legislator Edgardo Araya in San José’s Second Judicial Criminal. The company is pressing charges for Araya’s alleged defamation of Infinito Gold during previous legal battles in which the company...

By Wendy Anders You just never know what's going to happen next in Costa Rica. A zumba class in Plaza Los Colegios, Moravia, from Facebook. Yesterday morning, it turns out a young Brahman bull was wandering around the densely populated northern San José district of Moravia, reported Costa Rica's Channel 7 Teletica. After some men managed to get a noose around his neck, and tried to le...

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad — Eight Caribbean territories will receive financial assistance totaling US$8 million to combat exposure to toxic chemicals found in common household cleaning products, processed foods, and even clothing that can severely damage a person’s health. Examples of toxic household products, photo from Facebook. Dr. Ahmad Khan, director of the Basel Convention Regional Cent...

Costa Rica and Japan signed a cooperation agreement for the ongoing training for the conservation of terrestrial, coastal and oceanic ecosystems and wetlands. Understanding park management and the Japanese concept of Hatoyama, deepening the understanding of efficient management of protected areas and the sustainable use of natural resources with the participation of local residents and the p...

By Wendy Anders Rincon de la Vieja national park in Guanacaste has been eyed for its geothermal energy potential. A proposal to open Costa Rica’s national parks to geothermal energy projects was dashed last week by the Legislative Assembly’s environmental commission. After Libertarian Party legislators, Otto Guevara and Natalia Diaz, introduced the bill (number 19,339) in 2014, the initi...

By Wendy Anders Late last night, a Costa Rican non-profit environmental group reported an emergency off Brasilito beach in the country’s northern Guanacaste region on the Pacific coast. The Costa Rican Institute of Oceanology (Instituto de Oceanología) based in Playa Potrero said in a press statement published on their Facebook site that the shrimp boat, the Azoriano, allegedly collided agai...

Scientists in Brazil are preparing to release millions of factory-bred mosquitoes in an attempt to wipe out their distant cousins that carry tropical diseases. The insects' method: have sex and then die. British firm Oxitec says its genetically modified mosquitoes will swarm in among ordinary species such as Aedes aegypti, the insect that carries feared diseases such as Zika, dengue, yellow fev...

“El Salto del Calvo” (The bald man’s jump) is the highest waterfall in Central America, and yet, not many have heard about it, it is one of many well-kept secrets about Costa Rica. This waterfall is located in San Isidro de Hojancha in Guanacaste, an area of the province that not many tourists venture to even though it is not far from Liberia, around a 2 hour drive. Once you arrive in Hojanc...

By Wendy Anders Researchers at Stanford, through intense observations, mapping and analysis, generated a method of estimating biodiversity based on tree cover. The results can be used by policymakers to help protect biodiversity and endangered species. Stanford researchers discovered that in agricultural areas of Costa Rica, increased tree cover corresponds with increases in biodiversity. Th...

Marketwired - Global populations of vertebrates -- mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish -- have declined by 58 percent between 1970 and 2012, states a new report from World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Animals living in the world's lakes, rivers, and freshwater systems have experienced the most dramatic population declines, at 81 percent. Because of human activity, the report states that with...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica’s Ombudswoman, Montserrat Solano Carboni, expressed her concerns regarding proposed changes in pesticide regulations saying they were a setback for human health and the environment, her office reported yesterday in a press statement. The Ministry of Agriculture came under fire for proposing the use of reference chemicals when registering pesticides. So, instead of ...

The Princess of Asturias award of 2016 for International Cooperation was given to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Costa Rican Christiana Figueres and Mexican Patricia Espinosa former and current Executive Secretaries of the UNFCCC received the award given by King Felipe VI of Spain. “On behalf of all my colleagues at the UNFCCC, I would like to thank the 2016 Pri...

By Wendy Anders A successful fundraising campaign by the Costa Rica Forever Association, a local non-profit conservation agency that supports the country’s conservation areas and national park system, netted $230,000, allowing the group to purchase a much-needed patrol boat, and create a fund for the boat’s maintenance, said Zdenka Piskulich, the group’s executive director, in a press statement...

Brasilia, Oct 25 — About 3,000 cowboys and cowgirls on horseback rode Tuesday into Brasilia's Esplanade of the Ministries, which connects all of the government buildings in the Brazilian capital, to protest a Supreme Court ruling banning traditional bullfighting festivals. Vaquejada in Brazil, Facebook. The protest tied up traffic for an hour in downtown Brasilia, where demonstrators create...

Located in the region of Sarapiquí, Heredia, in the North of Costa Rica this Biological Reserve was born in 1995 as a private effort of conservation, it encompasses 345 hectares of tropical rainforest under the category of National Wildlife Refugee. The Tirimbina Biological Reserve is a perfect place for those that enjoy eco-tourism and sustainable tourism. This region is the home of diverse m...

The Guanacaste Tourism and Commerce Chamber Association sued the State to demand that the crocodile that attacked a tourist some months back in Tamarindo is relocated. The complaint was presented to the Contentious Administrative Proceedings Court on October 20 and it stated that “there has been an inaction and omission” by national authorities because they haven’t captured or relocated the cro...

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 Conse...

By Wendy Anders Crocodile Man Tour at the Tarcoles River near Jaco, Costa Rica A surfer is taking legal action to attempt to change the way the Costa Rican government manages the country’s fierce crocodiles which during certain times of the year enter estuaries and coastal waters from swollen river mouths, reported GrindTV, the adventure and outdoor lifestyle station, Saturday. Last week...

CHAPADA DOS GUIMARAES, Brazil — Maia grunts and nervously moves her huge body back and forth while being released from a transport container to a new home. Here, there are no gawking crowds for the Asian elephant that has spent her life in captivity. There are no blows from bull hooks, no one demanding tricks like people did when she was in the circus. Wikimedia Commons Instead, the first e...

(EFE).- A Spanish marine institution and military officials on Friday agreed to launch a pioneering project to evaluate the potential use of sea lions in search and rescue missions. The idea for the research deal came from the intelligence and skill demonstrated by sea lions during training in captivity as well as their known ability to effortlessly navigate choppy seas and dive to great depths...

Many beach-goers don’t just visit the coast to relax, enjoy the sun and swim in the warm water, for some it’s the possibility of exploring the underwater treasures the ocean has to offer that makes it irresistible. Scuba diving allows you to discover and witness with your own eyes parts of the world that many only get to see in television, the adventure and adrenaline behind it is undeniable. ...

By Wendy Anders At 3:00 a.m. yesterday in northern Costa Rica, judicial investigative agency (OIJ) police captured a man suspected of infringing Costa Rica’s wildlife protection laws. The 55-year-old was carrying 50 baby iguanas and an adult iguana in a sack on a bus. Police had been monitoring the man’s activities for a few days prior to the arrest, and they called in  some support from ...

Panama City, Oct. 12 — Hundreds of turtles lay their eggs every year on beaches along Panama's Pacific coast but their hatchlings face numerous threats to survival, both at sea and from stray dogs and poachers. Hawksbill turtle hatchlings in Central America. All along the coast of the small Punta Chame peninsula in central Panama, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) southwest of this capital,...

REUTERS- Home to the vast Amazon, Brazil has reduced its deforestation rate by more than 70 percent since 2003, but Latin America's largest country is still losing the equivalent of two football fields of rainforest every minute. The country aims to reduce net new deforestation to zero by 2030. Key tools in the fight are new satellite monitoring technologies, rural titling schemes to encoura...

By Wendy Anders Costa Rica's Golfo Dulce, Facebook post. In one the most biodiverse regions on the planet, kids in towns around Costa Rica’s southern Pacific Golfo Dulce are being encouraged to learn about and protect their coastal environment, reported the Public Security Ministry. The Costa Rican Coast Guard has stepped up to the plate to provide environmental education as part of a la...

By Wendy Anders Technology to clean the ocean of trash being developed by The Ocean Cleanup. The Ocean Cleanup concluded its first-ever reconnaissance flight over ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ this week, the group reported on their website. Founded in 2013 by Boyan Slat when he was 17, The Ocean Cleanup is a Dutch Foundation developing advanced technologies to rid the world’s oceans of p...

Arenal Volcano in Costa Rica, is one of those volcanos that you see in postcards and photos, the perfect shape cone is visible from many areas and the wonderful nature that surrounds it makes it one of the most popular National Parks in Costa Rica among both domestic and foreign tourists; this volcano is still considered active, but its currently dormant, a few years back glowing lava used to flow...

(EFE).- The United Nations said Wednesday that the Paris Accord on climate change will take effect Nov. 4, as a sufficient number of countries have ratified the agreement. "I am delighted to announce that today the Paris Agreement will cross the second and final threshold needed for entry into force, and will enter into force on 4 November 2016," said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a sta...

MADISON, Mont., Oct. 3 -- A Montana man said he survived a double attack by a grizzly bear while he scouted hunting locations by playing dead and fooling the giant animal. Wikimedia Commons Todd Orr posted pictures of his bloody, punctured body and a full account of the attacks on Facebook Sunday after driving himself to the hospital, to the surprise of doctors who were impressed with his r...

By Wendy Anders Photo courtesy of MarViva. Silky sharks, thresher sharks and giant devil rays were voted to be included in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) yesterday during the 17th convention conference in South Africa. Appendix II includes species that are not necessarily threatened with extinction, but whose int...