The Hotel Casa Caletas, located on the tip of beautiful Coyote Point, Guanacaste, promotes the area’s rich biodiversity in order to fuel its “eco” tourism business.

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Unfortunately, Hotel Casa Caletas is owned by Sylvester Fiechtinger, an Austrian-American citizen who is also the owner of Agropecuaria Caletas S.A., the farming company that for the past 4 years has been destroying, under his own personal orders, the Caletas Arío National Wildlife Refuge.

The Refuge was created on August 11, 2006 (Decreto 33232-Minae. La Gaceta #154). Unfortunately, since its creation, both the Refuge and its contiguous wetland have been the targets of constant environmental attacks by Mr. Feichtinger and his Agropecuaria Caletas S.A. company.

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The farming operation has built drainage ditches and roads through the middle of the wetland in order to draw off the water. It has also burned away native vegetation through controlled fires and has built a barbwire fence along the beach’s Public Zone. Nicoya’s District Attorney ordered the company to fill in the drains and remove the roads, and the Environmental Tribune fined the company 15 million colones (30 thousand dollars) for environmental damages.

At the present time, Mr. Feichtinger has FAILED TO COMPLY with these rulings, and he continues his plan to systematically destroy the Refuge. In July the wetland and the Refuge’s mangroves were sprayed with pesticides that caused massive fish kills, including shrimp and other marine organisms. In addition, Pretoma’s sea turtle volunteer camp was also sprayed, just to harass us.

Costa Rica Video – Airplane spraying poison in Caletas, Costa Rica. July 2010

Costa Rica Video – Environmental damages caused by Agropecuaria Caletas at Caletas Arío Wildlife refuge. 5th September 2009

Please fill out this quick, simple form here to automatically send a letter to the Minister of the Environment, Teófilo de la Torre, and to Hotel Casa Caletas.

If you would like to help even more, you can print the letter and send it by FAX to MINAET at (506) 2257-0697 and to Hotel Casa Caletas at (506) 2655-1270, as this has more impact. Please remember to copy Pretoma at (506) 2236-6017.

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Sr. Teófilo de la Torre

Minister of Environment, Energy, and Telecommunications

I would like to express to you my deep concern regarding the actions of the farming company Agropecuaria Caletas S.A., that are destroying the ecological integrity of the Caletas Arío National Wildlife Refuge and the important wetland that lies contiguous to it. I urge you to intervene so that:

  • Agropecuaria Caletas S.A. pays the 15 million colones for environmental damages it has caused.
  • Damages to the wetland are repaired immediately.
  • The Refuge’s 50 meter Public Zone is immediately defined.






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    In the meantime I will make it a point to inform all of my contacts that Agropecuario Caletas’ owner, Sylvester Fiechtinger, is also the owner of Hotel Casa Caletas and to not support this type of business.

    Written by Andy Bystrom who is the founder of the Costa Rican Conservation Network. As the interchange of knowledge allows for society to implement strategies that spur technological breakthroughs and economic growth, it is his dream that, in the light of these advances, those involved in conservation efforts around the world will unite and share information to facilitate efforts to protect the planet’s natural habitats.

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