Costa Rica
COSTA RICA DECLARES
“PEACE for NATURE”
May 8th, 2002, on the occasion of his ascension to the Presidency
of Costa Rica, the newly elected President of the country, Dr. Abel
Pacheco de la Espriella, has declared (de facto) Costa Rica as a
country free of oil exploration and exploitation and free of open
pit mining.
Excerpt from the Inaugural Address of the President of the Republic
of Costa Rica, the Dr. Abel Pacheco of the Espriella, constitutional
office May 2002-Mayo 2006
"We will compete without destroying Nature because, beyond the
events of the moment, our rich bio-diversity will always be a great
wealth and we will preserve it.
Before becoming an oil enclave, before becoming a land of open
pit mining, I plan to initiate a sustained effort to transform Costa
Rica into an ecological power.
The true fuel and the true gold of the future will be water and
oxygen; they will be our aquifers and our forests.
Before we declare peace among ourselves and we declare peace among
all nations; now we should declare a peace with Nature.
Costa Rica does have a future.
As part of the effort to guarantee this promising future, I want
to announce that I have adopted the proposal from a group of young
environmentalists that was transmitted to me by Gabriel Quesada,
grandson of Víctor Quesada, editor of the Social Guarantees
and by my son Fabián and that I will press forward surely
and decidedly, to incorporate in the Constitution of the Republic
a Chapter on Environmental Guarantees.
As part of this new Chapter in the Constitution, we will create
the security of absolute protection for primary forests so that
not a single tree there is cut; absolute protection for the aquifers
and the rivers; the absolute protection for the coral ecosystems,
of the mangroves and the wetlands; the absolute protection of wild
fauna and flora.
We will create the legal system so that deforested areas will be
reforested with native species and to make clear that we won't be
an oil enclave or land of open pit mining.
At the same time we will incorporate in this new Chapter of the
Constitution all that is necessary to ensure appropriate processes
for treatment of solid waste; to begin a systematic process of recycling
and to foster the vigorous development of organic agriculture.
Added to this, we will guarantee Costa Ricans that technological
developments, including the genetic advances, will have to be made
in harmony with Nature.
The inclusion of Social Guarantees, moved forward by Dr. Calderón
Guardia, gave us social peace; the inclusion of the Chapter of Environmental
Guarantees will give us sustainability and survival.
I call on all Costa Ricans, especially the youngest, to help me
with this initiative, to contribute with their ideas, to reinforce
with their proposals their right to make of this country a sanctuary
for Nature and for humanity.
Costa Rica has a future and we will assure it." |
