Thousands of acres of ecosystems converted to pineapple fields in Costa Rica
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This is according to what Mauricio Alvarez, president of the Costa Rican Conservationist Federation (FECON), told EFE.
“In 15 years, they cut down 725,000 trees, (causing) irreversible damage to the country.
“Complaints were never able to stand in the way although the communities complained that, in just one night, complete forests disappeared,” Alvarez said.
Now the Costa Rican government’s National Territorial Information System (SNIT), which uses a cartographic viewer with satellite images from state geographic information systems and official databases is showing that pineapple plantations are replacing forests.
“These invasions occurred between 2000 and 2015. The documents can be seen at the SNIT Web site, prepared with the participation of different public institutions,” said Alvarez.
All this places in doubt earlier reports and studies, given that the platform contains data that show that from 2000-2015 a total of 5,566 hectares (about 13,915 acres) of forest cover was lost to pineapple cultivation. ■