Business people at Chirripó
seek OK for more visitors


Local business people who rely on Parque Nacional Chirripó for their trade are compiling a report that they hope will persuade park chiefs to allow more tourists to stay at the mountain's sole refuge each night.

The Camara de Turismo of San Gerardo de Rivas, the small town situated at the entrance to the park, has paid up much of the money for repairs to the failing septic tank which has recently been finished at Refugio de los Crestones.

Comprised mostly of small business owners, the camara has worked in co-operation with the Ministerio de Ambiente y Energía and the Asociacion de Desarollo de San Gerardo y Herradura to raise the 5 million colons ($10,000) necessary for the project. The chamber has also donated time to the project, with many members hiking the day-long trip up to the refuge in order to carry out repairs with their own hands.

A report on the work and a petition is due to be presented Tuesday at 4 p.m. to Oscar Esquivel, the park administrator, at the park office in San Gerardo de Rivas.

Within the peition will be a request that the park be opened to a larger number of tourists, filling 75 percent of the 70 available beds in the refuge each night. This would mean that around 54 beds would be full each night, while currently the figures stand at around 40 beds.

Local business owners have complained that the difficulty that tourists encounter when trying to obtain spaces in the refuge often discourages them from staying in San Gerardo de Rivas for the length of time they would otherwise have spent there, meaning that restaurants, hotels and tour agencies lose custom.

“The relationship between the park and the business owners has been strained in the past due to what is perceived to be a lack of cooperation with the local businesses and residents who depend upon the park for tourism,” said John Titan, owner of hotel Casa Mariposa and member of the Camara de Turismo.

“It is hoped that this great gesture of accomplishing the repairs and saving the ministry hundreds of millions of colones and, perhaps 10 months of work (and potential park closure) will demonstrate to the ministry that cooperation is in the best interest of the administration.”
 
Esquivel has previously said that the repairs do not necessarily mean that he will be able to allow more people into the park, as to fill the refuge to capacity would require a new septic tank with greater capacity. However, he made the journey to the refuge himself last week and is said to have approved of the repairs.

Representatives of the Ministerio de Salud were also due to review the repairs Friday.

Opponents continue to fight
against passed veggie bill


Legislators may have passed the so-called veggie bill, but opponents are not giving up.

The Grupo Costa Rica en Acción claims that the measure lacked the required number of votes when lawmakers considered the measure last week. The controversial measure passed 32 to 11. This is the bill that allows those who create or discover new species of plant and micro life to patent the results. The measure is considered a key element of the enabling legislation for the free trade treaty with the United States.

The bill is called UPOV from its name in Spanish, and the Central Valley has been covered in signs and graffiti urging defeat of the measure. The English title is the "International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants."

The Grupo Costa Rica en Acción now claims that the measure needed 38 votes, or two-thirds, to pass because it is related to a treaty. The bill was approved on first reading in late February. The vote last week was the second and final one.

The bill provides that anyone who develops a new variety of plant has the rights to market it exclusively for 20 years. The term is 25 years if the plant is a perennial. There are some exceptions for others doing research and small and mid-size farms. The penalty for infringement is a jail term. In February the Sala IV high court voted that the measure did not have constitutional faults.

The bill has been opposed by environmentalists,those opposed to the treaty in general and also Talamanca Indians who fear First World scientists will plunder the traditional medicine and seek patents.  This is the same measure that opponents sought to subject to a national referendum. They did get 70,000 signatures, they said, and presented them to lawmakers last week.

What opponents will do is not clear. They may file another Sala IV case. They also seem to be developing grounds to challenge many more aspects of the free trade treaty, including the extension Costa Rica got for other countries involved to pass enabling legislation.

Stadium plan approved


Chinese construction employees will work three shifts a day to build a $72 million soccer stadium as a gift to Costa Rica, according to Casa Presidencial. President Óscar Airas Sánchez was reported to have approved the preliminary plans provided by a group of Chinese engineers. The stadium will seat 35,000 and will be on the site of the existing stadium in Parque la Sabana. Work could start in July.