By Wendy Anders

Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solís signed into effect a citizen monitoring project to aid in protecting the country’s natural resources, stated the executive branch press office today.

The volunteers will support the country’s national conservation area system (SINAC) in their work overseeing the country’s 160 protected areas of which 28 are national parks.

Residents interested in helping enforce existing environmental laws and contribute to protecting ecosystems and natural resources can apply at their local conservation area office or at the SINAC’s department of prevention, protection and control.

Volunteers will be organized into Natural Resources Oversight Committees (Covirenas, their acronym in Spanish) and will work within the guidelines and workplans set by conservation area officials.

Committee members will be selected over the next six months, and by next year will be trained to begin their monitoring work. The executive branch said that volunteer forest oversight committees will also be formed in the near future.