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Costa Rica

Costa Rican Court Rules in Favor of the Bribri

Date: 09/21/2011

On September 12, 2011 the Contentious Administrative Court of Costa Rican ruled that the ancestral lands of the Bribri people of the Keköldi Reserve must be returned. The Bribri  live in the Talamanca Canton in Limón Province of Costa Rica and number between 11,000-35,000 people. Keköldi Reserve was created in 1977 on the Caribbean coast, after non-Indigenous groups began settling on the land.

The Current State of International Law

Largely as a result of their own advocacy at the international level, indigenous peoples are now distinct subjects of concern within the United Nations, the Organization of American States, and other international institutions. Through their efforts over the last three decades especially, indigenous peoples have been able to generate substantial international sympathy for their demands.

Artist Offers Scathing Commentary, Healthy Snack

Long touted as a tasty source of potassium, it seems bananas may also be rich in global socio-political commentary. Thanks to New York-based artist Douglas Fishbone, the fruit is emerging as a piquant symbol of American imperialism and an international culture of consumerism.

Stakeholder Negotiations Over Third World Natural Resource Projects

This article explores three cases in which the traditional model of "bilateral" negotiations between foreign investor and host country government over natural resource utilization was challenged by domestic and international interest groups, striving to protect the environmental, social, and spiritual integrity of locally affected forest lands.

Making the Most of ILO Convention 169

The International Labor Organization (ILO), a specialized agency of the United Nations, adopted its Convention on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, 1989 (No. 169) amidst a growing momentum for the recognition of indigenous peoples' right to self-determination and decolonization. The convention's failure to address these issues directly disenchanted many indigenous organizations with the ILO as a whole. Efforts shifted to the drafting of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in the hope that this UN instrument would go farther.

THE VISUAL RECORD: Disappearing Forests; Disappearing Peoples

Central America, the 200,000-square-mile land bridge connecting North and South America and separating the Pacific from the Caribbean, is an extremely heterogeneous mosaic of climate, soils, vegetation, and animal life. Species from both North and South American intermingle along this isthmus, making it one of the richest zones of biological diversity in the world. Its tropical forests, in particular, are repositories of a multitude of species of flora and fauna.

INTERVIEW WITH JUANITA SEGUNDO SANCHEZ AND GLORIA MAYORGA BALMA: "We Can Survive and Prosper"; Without taking strong steps now,

Juanita Segundo S nchez and Gloria Mayorga Balma are Bribri Indians. They live in Costa Rica's Kék"Ldi Reserve, which was established in 1977. The area is officially known as the Cocles Reserve, but its residents prefer the Bribri name Kék"Ldi and have initiated proceedings to change it legally. Its indigenous population is less than 200 people.

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Congo Project Draws Fire

A joint initiative of the World Bank and the United Nations Development Project (UNDP) could address some of the difficulties that arise when development groups try to take ecological factors into account. The Global Environment Facility (GEF) would support conservation efforts in developing countries that couldn't otherwise afford them, and several demonstration projects are underway.

The Paradox of Tourism in Costa Rica

The New York Times Magazine published a special issue on 11 October 1989 entitled "The Sophisticated Traveler." Costa Rican Pacific beaches were featured in an article that discussed Manuel Antonio National Park, a "naturalistic paradise of 1707 acres of jungle coming right to the high-tide mark of some of the most beautiful beaches in the world." The tourists who travel there, as with all the other national parks in Costa Rica, "tend to carry binoculars and serious cameras along with their sunscreen" (Rose 1989).

Mapping the Distribution of Indians in Central America

A reasonable first step in the study of Central American Indians is to identify and locate people of Amerindian heritage. Most attempts at mapping the distribution of Indians in Central America have been produced by anthropologists and based primarily on language, including those by Brinton (1891), Thomas and Swanton (1911), Lehmann (1920), Jiménez Moreno (1937), Mason (1940), Johnson (1940 and 1948), and McQuown (1955). Normally, the maps show approximate group boundaries for the period of Spanish contact.

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