Incofer had authorized the felling of a Copey tree that was more than 70 years old.
The Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (popularly known as the IV Chamber) revoked an official letter from the Costa Rican Railway Institute (Incofer) which authorized the felling of a Copey tree that was more than 70 years old in San Antonio de Belén.
The Court resolved an appeal for protection filed by a resident of the town of Heredia against Incofer and the National System of Conservation Areas (Sinac), in which he detailed that The tree is one of only five of the aforementioned species remaining in the Heredia canton.
The resolution No. 2024-017568 The petition was filed after a neighbour complained about the existence of the tree and requested that it be cut down, as part of the tree’s crown is on the roof of his house. After an inspection, the Sinac confirmed the situation and indicated that it has a southerly inclination that is within the Incofer right-of-way.
Sinac also told the neighbor that he had to apply for a logging permit with Incofer because he was in that area. Incofer authorized the complete felling of the tree from the roots to be carried out on March 15 and 16.
This caused that More than 40 neighbors sent a letter to different authorities to prevent the complete felling of the treesince they considered that such action violates their fundamental rights
The court upheld the appeal and revoked the logging authorization given by Incofer. Likewise, it ordered Alvaro Bermudez Penain his capacity as executive president of the Railway Institute, to refrain from engaging in such conduct again, as well as to immediately determine the current state of the tree and arrange for the relevant measures for its recovery and protection.
The Court recalled that a prison sentence of three months to two years, or a fine of twenty to sixty days, will be imposed on anyone who receives an order that must be complied with or enforced, issued in an appeal for protection, and does not comply with it or enforce it.
In addition, the judges ordered the Instituto Costarricense de Ferrocarriles to pay the costs and damages caused by the alleged events, which may be claimed in the process of enforcing the sentence in the administrative litigation process.
According to local media reports The Guachothe day the felling was planned Dozens of neighbors demonstrated and some even chained themselves to the tree to prevent it from being cut down.As the morning went by, thanks to the intervention of María Antonia Castro, Carlos Venegas, Nina Garrigues and Manuel Zumbado Corrales, a written agreement was reached, in which the person requesting the cutting agreed to only prune the tree, while giving the municipality a chance to move the copey to a municipal property.
Photograph by El Guacho.
