San José, Costa Rica.
The ministers of security and environment of Costa Rica, Ecuador and Panama meet for the first time for roundtable discussions to analyze in an integrated way the main threats posed by organized crime to the environment and security of the seas and coastal areas.
The gathering is an opportunity for each of the nations represented to talk about the difficult situations that they have in common and define plans of action.
Costa Rica is the host country, thanks to the previous efforts of Minister of Security Gustavo Mata within the framework of the Southern Alliance (Alianza Sur), which served as a prelude to bilateral negotiations.
This area, abundant in natural riches, contains five islands, four of them declared by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites, as well as being an area crucial to the economies of the region.
This event as an important milestone in a dynamic, comprehensive, security and environmental approach was recognized by the Costa Rican minister of security, Gustavo Mata Vega, who said, “Today, a change in the security of our seas is born.”
Edgar Gutiérrez Espeleta, the Costa Rican minister of environment and energy, highlighted the union of wills represented by this kind of action to address common problems “with ministers from fellow governments that, like us, are seeking all of the mechanisms available to address problems that concern countries bordering the sea. Scourges such as drug trafficking and the illegal trafficking of animals are very grave problems that require all of us to work together to solve them as quickly as possible.”
“This opportunity is a demonstration of the political will to find solutions to a problem that affects not only a sector of the country but an extensive region of the Pacific, where those harmed, in addition to the natural resources, are the people that live in the coastal areas,” said Zdenka Piskulich, president of the Pacífico Foundation (Fundación Pacífico).
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The Pacífico Foundation is a coordination platform made up of four environmental funds (from Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Panama), whose objective is to develop regional strategies that improve conservation actions in the Tropical Eastern Central Pacific in order to ensure the reasonable use of its resources and the well-being of the people. It facilitated the meeting.