As one of the top 20 countries with the most biodiversity, Costa Rica is deeply committed to environmental protection and conservation. So how can Costa Rica allow illegal logging to threaten the almost endangered cocobolo tree and other rare trees in its national parks?
The international demand, particularly from China and India, for cocobolo is depleting national parks. There's strong evidence to support that organized crime is behind this tree trafficking. Ironically, the Costa Rican government is partly to blame for this tree trafficking. Sometimes the government provides permits to harvest the tree. Illegal loggers will just keep cutting down the trees until they're asked for a permit. Loggers can also get their hands on "legal" cocobolo by buying seized wood from the Prosecutor’s Office. I don't see how auctioning the vulnerable wood back to the people who cut it in the first place is going to ever curb the illegal practice.
There are other consequences to this tree trafficking. When/if the demand for cocobolo wanes, another exotic tree, probably in the national parks, will take its place. These trees, particularly the ones along streams and rivers, are critical in protecting water sources, especially during the country's drought. Tree trafficking could also escalate human conflict. In 2012, Panama's indigenous Wounaan people confronted loggers taking cocobolo. Two people died and three others were injured in this confrontation.
Sign and share this petition urging Costa Rica to crack down on the country's illegal logging. Today, it's Costa Rica's cocobolo -- tomorrow, it's national parks littered with logs and stumps because all of the trees have been cut down.
