Thursday, April 16th, 2009
Costa Rican Exterior Commerce Minister Marco Vinicio Ruiz denied on Wednesday that his country blocked the negotiations for the Association Agreement with the European Union (EU).
Ruiz said that Costa Rica has most interest in the agreement “because we have 70 percent of the region’s trade with Europe and 70 percent of the European investment in Central America.”
Ruiz also urged Nicaragua to change its stance on its proposal of a fund worth 60 billion euros (around 79 billion U.S. dollars) and to return to the negotiating table with the EU. (more…)
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Thursday, April 16th, 2009
A total of 82 people have been charged by the Ministerio de Ambiente, Energía y Telecomunicaciones (Minaet) – environment ministry – during Semana Santa for removing plants and animals from Costa Rica’s protected areas. The charged will be facing criminal charges.
According to Carlos Varela, coordinator of the Programa de Control y Conservación del Minaet, taken from conservation areas were 11 mammals, 7 reptiles, 28 birds, 261 fish, 12 shrimp, 50 orchideas, 150 palmitos and 30.000 palm leaves. Varela added that Minaet officials also confiscated some 2.092 pieces of wood.
The sanctions faced by the individuals range from a ¢10.000 colones (+/- us$20) fine to ¢60.000 and a possible jail time of three to six months and repairing the damage.
Varela said that there is no benefit to removing the plants and animals. Plants removed from their natural habitat are mostly taken to San Jose, where the climatic conditions are diverse, where the plants and animals are stressed, and die due to malnutrition, capture and become a real problem.
The Minaet had 444 officials and 226 volunteers working over the Semana Santa in a number of spot checks, that included 83 road blocks, where they stopped a total of 12.297 vehciles.
Varela explained that some of those caught voluntarily handed over their find. In total, 2 mammals, 640 birds, 159 palmitos and 20 fish were returned.
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Thursday, April 16th, 2009
Costa Ricans are buying and burning considerably less fuel than last year, according to the nation’s oil authority, which registered a 23 percent drop in demand last month from March 2008.
The fall in demand has been gaining speed throughout the first three months of the year, the National Oil Refinery (RECOPE) said in a press release Wednesday. January saw a 6.28 percent decrease in fuel consumption from the same month in 2008, and February dropped 14 percent. All told, in the first quarter of 2009 oil demand was 15.13 percent below that of first quarter 2008 down to just under 4.2 million barrels from 4.9 million.
Fueling the fall most was consumption of diesel fuel for the generation of electricity, which plummeted 99.64 percent in March compared with the same month last year. Fuels for ships (IFO) and planes (JET A-1) have also been on the decrease, down 67.58 percent and 31.74 percent in March respectively.
Bucking the trend, however, demand for super gasoline rose 5.86 percent last month from the prior March.
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