in Costa Rica, forests threatened by coffee plantations

It is a country often presented as a model, a “green state”, a “champion of biodiversity and environmental protection”. In fact, Costa Rica, a tiny country of 51,000 square meters in Central America, is full of natural resources. The right of every citizen to live in a healthy environment is enshrined in the Constitution and nearly a quarter of the territory is classified as a “national park” or “nature reserve”.

However, everything is not so simple. One week before the opening of COP26 on the climate, franceinfo visitedin the mountainous region of Los Santos, which produces half of the Costa Rica. Here, coffee farmers are trying to cut back on protected forests to produce more. And environmental activists today are fighting to preserve what has been so well protected by previous generations.

It is enough to take a dirt road, narrow and bumpy, to take the measure of this threat. In an all-terrain car, Paola, Karl and Osvaldo, three environmental activists, climb up the mountain, escorted by several police officers. Karl, in particular, a member of the NGO Quercus, received threats from certain coffee growers. “It was all forest ten years ago. Here we have species like magnolia, oak, holm oak. All of these species, as you can see, have been totally cut down. There is a huge amount of dry trees. This cultivator came in and killed the trees by removing some of their bark, which caused the tree to gradually dry out. “, he explains.

Norman owns a neighboring farm. “It’s a shame for this mountain”, he laments. There were so many animals here: tapirs, monkeys. But we don’t see any more. ” A little later, Paola, also from the NGO Quercus, rings the bell directly with the owner of these ravaged lands. The gate is huge, equipped with video surveillance cameras, there are people inside, but no one will answer.

Second attempt at explanations. Phone call to Maria Marin, mayor of the municipality of Dota, the local authority. “It’s very worrying, she admits. However, we do know that there are a lot of people who grow coffee responsibly. And there are very few that have caused problems, in any part of the mountain. “

Osvaldo Duran, sociologist and member of the Ecological Federation of Costa Rica, is not at all convinced. “She interprets the law as she pleases, he denounces. There have been two decisions of a higher court in Costa Rica asking it to uproot illegally planted coffee. Did the municipality of Dota do it? No !” Greedy in land, coffee like pineapple and banana are export products, source of wealth for Costa Rica.