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Agreement between Costa Rica and Panama will benefit a borderline park |
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Costa Rica and Panama accorded to give an intelligent use to La Amistad International Park (PILA), home of unique species of flora and fauna in the world, through ecotourism and protection to the indigenous communities.
"Development of this borderline area is linked to the intelligent use of biodiversity", indicated during a press conference at the Panamian capital Costa Rica’s Minister of the Environment, Carlos Manuel Rodríguez Echandi.
The Minister signed along with Ligia Castro, director of the National Authority for the Environment (Anam), an agreement to formalize the creation of a bi-national commission of the PILA, forest existing as such 30 years ago.
Both functionaries coincided that coordinated work will give better results for the goal of protecting the park, with 193 thousand hectares on the Costa Rican side and 207 thousand hectares in the sector of Panama, divided by the borderline.
The PILA was declared La Amistad Biosphere Reserve in 1982 by the United Nations for Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) and in 1983 was included as a World Heritage Site, for its ample biodiversity.
This "ecological region" is considered a biological bridge between North and South America, because there are species which are nowhere else in the world, indicated Rodríguez Echandi.
On the park and its surrounding areas live over 30 thousand people, the majority of them are poor indigenous people.
"It is not with deforestation and farm ranching that development will reach this area, but through the intelligent use of biodiversity as well as tourism and ecotourism", proposed Rodríguez Echandi.
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