However, in Costa Rica, organizations highlighted that with the Free Trade Agreement signed with the US, this regulation was strongly limited, and its original spirit was distorted.

The award was issued by the German-based international organization World Future Council and was granted to the 1998 Law, for its participatory process to draft the Bill, its contents, and for being the first in the world to implement the Convention on Biological Diversity.

However, Costa Rican organizations explained how a unique law can be turned into an empty shell, as what happened during Oscar Arias´ administration and currently with Laura Chinchilla as president.

This is what Silvia Rodriguez Cervantes said in an interview with Real World Radio. The Arias administration passed over 15 laws and regulations damaging for the environment, among them the declaration of the mining project Crucitas as a Public Interest Project, that Chinchilla does not want to repeal, despite the over 15 thousand signatures gathered, the two marches and the fasting carried out outside the Presidential Building in protest against the declaration.

Silvia was part of organization GRAIN for many years and is currently member of the Biodiversity Coordination Network. After a press conference in which several organizations member of the network celebrated the award but also denounced the “double standards” of the authorities, Real World Radio interviewed Silvia.

“This law has been damaged with the signing of the FTA with the US, which is now being used as a basis for the Association Agreement with the European Union”, she said. This award establishes the need to respect the regulation as a whole, not changing it or mutilating it as has happened before with FTAs.

Photo: http://www.juliaardon.com/