Protecting a Refuge for the Last Jaguar of Costa Rica in Corcovado National Park

Over the past two years, Global Conservation has funded Global Park Defense systems, equipment and training using technology and a new methodology to improve effectiveness of ranger patrols and government sweeps against illegal gold miners, illegal loggers, hunters and commercial wildlife poachers.

Corcovado National Park on the Osa Peninsula in the south of Costa Rica was established in 1975 covering over 42,570 hectares in its terrestrial area and 5,375 hectares of marine protected area (MPA). A rare vast wilderness area, Corcovado contains the last major intact forests and wildlife habitats without human development and a variety of forest, beach, coral reef, mangrove and freshwater marsh ecosystems unique to the Americas

In 2017, Global Conservation was invited by the government and Osa Conservancy to assist with Global Park Defense systems, technology and training to improve Park Ranger patrolling, surveillance and intelligence to counter illegal mining, illegal logging, and commercial level hunting and wildlife poaching.

Commercial Poaching of Wildlife is destroying Costa Rica's Jaguar population – now down to less than 30 individuals in Corcovado National Park, along with its prey - The Paca - popular gamemeat for restaurants and families around the park and in the cities and towns.

Destruction of river beds for mining gold. Large areas of rivers are displaced.

Threats to Corcovado National Park

Gold has been mined for over a century inside the national park and this gold has high commercial value and is relatively easy to extract. When Corcovado National Park was created, it was estimated that there were only 10-15 people extracting gold inside the Park, and at that time they were not considered to cause any significant environmental damage. By 1985 the number of people extracting gold within Corcovado National Park had increased to an estimated 500 to 2200 people, with over 400 working in the park today, even have major government sweeps and evictions.

Justices ordered the immediate eviction of every person conducting illegal logging, poaching and gold mining inside Corcovado National Park. Photo: Lindsay Fendt/The Tico Times

In January 2017, a group of organizations and citizens won a major lawsuit - “Recurso de Amparo” - against the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE/SINAC) and the Ministry of Finance for their ineffective protection for Corcovado National Park.  NGO FECON’s President Mauricio Álvarez said Corcovado is being threatened by poachers, loggers “and the permanent presence of 400 gold miners who are destroying the park with dynamite and heavy machinery.”

Environmental groups for decades have denounced the government’s lack of action against gold miners who destroy vegetation and forests, and dump large amounts of sediments into the rivers and therefore to the sea.

One of those reports said park rangers and experts found that gold miners in a section of the park used dynamite to remove some 10 square kilometers (3.8 square miles) of material, equivalent to some 2,000 waste trucks full. “This is equivalent to medium-scale open-pit mining,” the document states.

Above: Deep mines and mining camps were found in park sweeps by SINAC patrols backed by border police and military. Below: Confiscated mining tools.

Global Park Defense for Corcovado National Park

Global Conservation was invited by the government and Osa Conservancy to assist with Global Park Defense systems, technology and training to improve Park Ranger patrolling, surveillance and intelligence to counter illegal mining, illegal logging, and commercial level hunting and wildlife poaching destroying the jaguar population – now down to less than 30 individuals – and its prey.

A Threat Assessment in Winter, 2017 reviewing law enforcement actions led to several important conclusions, one of them being the urgency of strengthening the use of intelligence and technologies to make the field patrolling more efficient.

In 2017 and 2018, Global Conservation supported four major SINAC/MINAE Park Ranger Patrol missions to ‘sweep’ Corcovado National Park with support from the Ministry of Security and Border Police. SINAC is the park authority for all national parks in Costa Rica.  Unfortunately, Corcovado National Park has only 6-8 active SINAC rangers at any one time for covering nearly 50,000 hectares of deep jungle and tropical coastal rainforest.

It is estimated that over 400 illegal miners are now operating within the national park.  Illegal gold mining within the Corcovado National Park is occurring in multiple river basins including Sirena, Rio Claro, Rincón, Tigre and Termo Rivers.

Wildlife poaching has decimated the jaguar population, the keystone species, as well as its prey, plummeting below sustainable levels. It is estimated that less than 30 jaguars are surviving in the national park and surrounding Osa Peninsula today.

To eliminate illegal gold mining and wildlife poaching in Corcovado National Park, Global Conservation is supporting SINAC/MINAE park authorities in park protection including:

· Threat Assessment - using expert analysis and reporting

· Aerial Surveillance - using UAV Drones and light aircraft

· Ground Surveillance – River Inspection teams to locate and geo-reference illegal gold mining activities within the park

· Cellular Trailcams – Camera monitoring of roads, trails and rivers

· Identification of Violators -  establishing a enforcement database of who are doing illegal mining and wildlife poaching within the park

· Detailed Mapping - of locations of illegal activities within the park for targeting joint police and park ranger patrols

Global Park Defense results and challenges:

-       Multiple arrests of miners (12), poachers (5) and drug traffickers (6)

-       Mobilization of Ministry of Security to support Rangers Sweeps

-       First ranger patrols using aircraft and boat to reach deep into the park

-       Failure of Aerial Surveillance using UAV Drones to date. Deep jungle and poor satellite GPS made flights impossible with current mid-grade drones (under $50,000).

-       Airplanes cannot fly at night in Osa limiting use to identify locations of mining campfires using thermal cameras.

About Corcovado National Park

Corcovado National Park has an unusual amount of biological diversity that is unmatched anywhere else in the world in a similar-sized area. The park is home to more than 500 species of trees, 140 species of mammals, 40 species of freshwater fish, 117 species of amphibians, and about 6,000 species of insects. Four species of sea turtles lay their eggs on Corcovado’s beaches, and its forests house the largest population of red macaws in Costa Rica.

The Osa Peninsula, where the park is located, is home to 69 percent of Costa Rica’s endangered vertebrate species. It is also home to half of the country’s endangered plants and one third of its endangered trees. According to official data, Corcovado is home to 50 percent of the country’s species and harbors 3 percent of the world’s biodiversity. National Geographic famously referred to Corcovado as “the most biologically intense place on Earth in terms of biodiversity.”

Global Conservation - Investments in Global Park Defense

Our First Year Results - 2017-2018

Goals: Strengthen Corcovado National Park's Law Enforcement Program with new technologies, training and logistical support to reduce anthropogenic threats.

Outcomes:

1. Improved the collection of information about the illegal activities that occur in Corcovado National Park through the use of camera traps, drones and overflights.

2. Developed and equipped a Comite de Vigilancia de los Recursos Naturales (COVIRENAS) to support ranger operations to conduct gold mining assessments of the main rivers of Corcovado National Park.

3. Provided logistical support to special operations with the various police forces of the Minister of Security, including National Coast Guard Service and Border Police, to improve enforcement and augment consequences for illegal acts.

4. Get through the generational bottleneck: reduce poaching and hunting by the older adult generation to minimal levels, embed that change in a permanent cultural change. (Guardaparques Junior Program). 

Summary of Sweep Patrols - Findings

Multiple Ranger Patrols sweeps supported by Global Conservation and Osa Conservation found there are numerous organized groups living in the community of Puerto Jiménez which finance people to extract gold from the National Park. These groups are also engaged in drug trafficking, illegal logging and sexual exploitation of women within and outside the National Park.

One group called La Banda de Los Lelos is a group with a clear family profile and are committing environmental and criminal crimes within the National Park.

There are over 30 known gold mining tunnels inside the National Park, the majority under the control of organized families and groups which are being informed about the activities of park authorities, ranger teams and police enforcement.

There seems to be a degree of corruption within the National Park personnel where bribing is done in exchange for information on patrolling and criminal investigations.

The total operating budget for Corcovado National Park in 2017 is 40 million Colones, or approximately $1.6 million US for Costa Rica's most important and visited national park.

Large-scale operations in Corcovado National Park have been ineffective in the past due to informant networks, the ‘Campana’ or ‘Bell Ringing’ system, which alert gold miners and wildlife poachers to park ranger and law enforcement operations.

It seems the leakage of information in the planning of park protection operations is common, and it is suspected that some corrupt officials provide information to organized criminal groups.

There are very few Park Rangers on staff of the Park Authority which are capable of patrolling. At any one time, less than 10 Park Rangers are available for patrolling a national park area of over 45,000 hectares. A total of 65 officials are today working for the Corcovado National Park.

It is critical a major change in the Park Protection model, strategies and training, as well as multiplying patrol resources will be required to achieve ‘No Kill, No Cut’ protection of Corcovado National Park.

The most recent 2018 Spring Operation patrols included 41 Border Police, 10 SINAC Rangers,15 Officials in the Command Center, 2 Red Cross and 7 Officials of SINAC. The Spring Operation focused on a sweep of the entire national park area of 45,000 hectares.

Illegal gold miners demonstrating against park protection efforts by MINAE/SINAC to remove illegal activities within the national park.