U.S. and Costa Rica Sister Park Agreement: SINAC Staff Visit Oct. 12-24

Chris Stein, Superintendent of U.S. National Park Service, provides an overview of Costa Rica’s National Park Service (SINAC) visit to the U.S. in October:

In June 2013, SINAC/ACOSA and the US National Park Service signed a "Sister Park" Partnership agreement between the 7 national parks and protected areas of the Osa Conservation Area and 13 national parks of the upper Midwest USA.  The focus of this agreement is the birds that nest and raise their families in the USA, but return home to Latin America during North America's cold winters. 

In October 2014, three SINAC/ACOSA staff members traveled to four USA "Sister Parks" to educate their USA park peers about Osa's parks and protected areas.  Another major component of the trip was to learn how U.S, national park staff, and partners are dealing with invasive fish and water quality issues.  The Costa Rican travelers were the director of Osa's parks and protected area, the Manager of the Terraba Sierpe National Wetlands, and a Research Coordinator for ACOSA. 

This trip follows on the heals of a trip U.S. National Park Service staff (scientists and educators) made to San Jose and the Osa Peninsula this past July to educate SINAC and ACOSA staff about how the U.S. park staff "inventory and monitor" plant and animal life, as well as natural processes, in their national parks, as well as educate park visitors about park resources.  The first international technical exchange between park staff occurred in August 2013 when SINAC/ACOSA's Guido Saborio visited the USA parks for a general introduction to the possibilities of the partnership.

For more information, please contact:

Chris Stein

Superintendent, U.S. National Park Service

<chris_stein@nps.gov>

Government Removes JUDESUR Board of Directors

On October 8^th, the Board of Directors for JUESUR was removed on account of a series of administrative anomalies. Unusual behavior from the Board such as the hiring of relatives, unnecessary allowances, and even debt forgiveness of current staff was reported, leading it its eventual suspension. In the interim, an oversight board has been created from five community members and will act as its new Board for six months.

For more information, read here. 

National Cultures Day (Oct. 12^th) Celebration with the Ngäbe

With help from the Distance Education University (UNED) and the University of Costa Rica (UCR), the Ngäbe indigenous peoples of southern Costa Rica produced and aired their first radio production on October 12^th in celebration of Costa Rica’s National Cultures Day. Their production, entitled “The struggle for identification documentation for the Ngäbe peoples of Costa Rica,” was supported by research from the Culture and Development Program (CICDE) at UNED, and entailed two shows, one in Spanish, and the other in Ngäbere, their traditional language.

Read more about the event here (article in Spanish).