by Rod Hughes

The Costa Rican government has confiscated 32 farms along the Pacific coast in order to protect leathback turtles, the largest and most endangered of all turtle species.The farms will be added to the Las Baulas Marine Park, a strip of national park hugging the coastline along the northern section of the Nicoya Peninsula.

This is the most important area where turtles come ashore to lay and bury their eggs in the sandy beaches. Of eight extant species of turtles, six lay their eggs on Costa Rican beaches. Las Baulas (the Spanish name for the leatherback) Marine Park was established in 1991 protects nesting areas along Ventanas and Grande beaches as well as Tamrindo and San F¨rancisco estuaries and their mangrove swamps and Capitán and Verde islands. The majority of land originally envisioned for the park is in private hands

The government fears development may cause irreperable damage to the seagoing animals. Turtles nest at night and lights and noise disorient the turtles with the danger that the animals may abandon the beach and never return. Overdevelopment has already caused this on some Mexican beaches, notes Sergio Aráuz of the Marine Turtle Restoration Program. He fears that the construction of summer homes and hotels may be the last nail in the coffin of the leatherback as a species.

Development, if it is to happen, can be done in moderation and with care. Las Tortugas Hotel on Playa Grande, for example, was constructed decades ago with the welfare of the nesting turtles foremost. The hotel is set back from the nesting beach and its lights minimal and shielded from the beach. But the situation is delicate; one home with bright lights shining toward the beach and with loud music and wild parties during nesting season can drive away the scarce animals permanently.

But even more, unwise development can wreck mangrove areas that are immeasureably rich in all manner of wildlife.

Expropriation can take one or two years more. Property owners have a right to three separate evaluations by idfferent experts. The government says the going price is $800 per square meter but at least one owner told the daily La Nación that that price is far lower than it should be. “We’re indignant!” Ana Catalina Facio told the newspaper. “Residents already have light and noise control to not effect the turtles, This expropriation is unnecessary.”