Conservation Clinic
Worlds Colliding: Land Use in a Developing State
June 15- July 28, 2008
Costa Rica is making a painful transition to development. Less than 20 years ago it seemed conservationists' chief concern was deforestation due to illegal logging and the continued march of the agricultural frontier. Today, the most valuable tree species in the country are all but commercially extinct and the country is one of the few in the developing world that can boast net reforestation. Today’s issues are developed country issues; yet Costa Rica is not fully developed. Even so, real estate development and land use planning represent today’s concerns.
U.S. and Costa Rican law and graduate students from the 2007 Clinic in Costa Rica examined the legal tools for the regulation of land use in the United States and their application in civil law tradition in Costa Rica. The students presented their results to the rapidly gentrifying municipality of Santa Ana in Costa Rica’s Central Valley. A brief description of the project and its results are presented here.
World's Colliding [14MB PPT]