COSTA RICA

The Biodiversity Law in Costa Rica was the first of its kind in the world
to encapsulate all the principles of the International Biodiversity Treaty signed at the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit in 1992. The law
ensures sustainable use of
organic resources, and fair distribution of the benefits
and costs derived from them. But now, the groundbreaking law, passed in April,
could be declared null and void, following a complaint
of unconstitutionality filed recently by the second vice
president, Elizabeth Odio, who is soon to take over as
Costa Rica's full-time environment minister.

"We are extremely concerned about this action,
which declares two fundamental articles of the law unconstitutional," said
Isabel McDonald of Costa Rican environmental
umbrella group Federation for the Conservation of the
Environment (FECON), one of the organisations that
drafted the law. "This basically paralyses implementation of the law," it said.
On the other hand, according to Odio, an expert
jurist, the law creates two autonomous, publicly funded bodies to oversee
biodiversity resources, which
is not only inadmissible under the country's constitutional rules, but would
set a dangerous precedent for government institutions, leading to their
disintegration.

The law's creators are willing to change its
unconstitutional aspects, and wonder why Odio took
the drastic step of initiating a legal procedure which can
stall its implementation for one or two years, instead of
trying to negotiate a solution with them.

Odio, currently serving as a magistrate in the International Court of
justice in the Hague, The Netherlands, said she is
willing to find a negotiated solution when she visits
Costa Rica next.