Archive for July 18th, 2008
Friday, July 18th, 2008
The Costa Rican government on Wednesday voiced discontent with a recent U.S. anti-drug aid package, saying the money is far less than what the country needs to combat drug trafficking.
The 4.2-million-U.S. dollar-aid, provided by the United States under the anti-drug initiative called “Merida,” is not even enough to buy an anti-drug vessel, said Public Security Minister Janina del Vecchio.
“I don’t understand why the United States gave us so less money to fight drug traffickers,” she said. (more…)
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Friday, July 18th, 2008
Property investors interested in buy-to-let in Costa Rica should be encouraged by the latest tourist figures which show a healthy increase in the first half of this year.
According to the Ministry of Tourism in San José foreign arrivals increased 16% from the same period last year. That amounted to an additional 133,000 visitors.
The research also shows that most tourists came from the US indicating that this is the market to target in terms of holiday rental yields. A total of 54% were Americans and 17% were Europeans.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Tourism said they were pleased with the figures as there had been concerns that the economic downturn would dent the number of visitors from the US. Fears that increased airline prices because of the higher cost of fuel would similarly dent the European market have also not materialised.
A new marina development near Limon is also being hailed as an opportunity to attract more investment and visitors. It will be the first large scale yacht-friendly resort on the Atlantic coast of Costa Rica. (more…)
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Friday, July 18th, 2008
Climate change could have a major impact on the environment of Costa Rica, upsetting delicate mountain cloud forests, and causing a decrease in plant and animal species in a region famous for its biodiversity. Regional climate models predict that the area will become warmer and drier as climate change accelerates.
While melting Arctic sea ice and glaciers have become a symbol of climate change, new research from the University of Massachusetts Amherst indicates that highland forests in Costa Rica could also be seriously affected by future changes in climate, reducing the number of species in a region famous for its biodiversity.
“Central America is a major, emerging “hot spot” in the tropics where climate change impacts on the environment will be pronounced, and the loss of species associated with climate has already been identified,” says doctoral candidate Ambarish Karmalkar of the UMass Amherst Climate System Research Center. He recently attended the first conference organized in Costa Rica to study this issue. “We have completed a regional climate model showing that many areas of Costa Rica will become warmer and drier as climate change accelerates, and these changes will be amplified at higher elevations.”
Additional members of the research team include Raymond Bradley, a professor of geosciences at UMass Amherst, and Henry Diaz of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (more…)
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