5:44pm November 28, 2013

➸ You won't believe why Costa Rica is being sued for $1 billion

badass-bharat-deafmuslimpunkstar:

yourmaniac:

Turns out there is a price to pay for protecting your rainforests.

This is fucking important! Sign and reblog.

wow this is outrageous, why isn’t this going around? from the link:

Infinito Gold, a Canadian mining company, just slapped Costa Rica with a $1 billion lawsuit simply because the country decided its rainforests were more important than an open-pit gold mine.

Lauded as one of the countries with the most beautiful rainforests, it’s no wonder Costa Rica rejected Infinito’s mine. Costa Rica’s rainforest is home to many endangered species such the green macaw. Gold mining also uses toxic chemicals such as cyanide, which often leaks into and pollutes nearby lakes and rivers.

A subsidiary of Infinito Gold has announced that a massive lawsuit is “imminent”, so we need to act now. If thousands of us stand together, we can show Infinito that countries such as Costa Rica should have the right to protect their rainforests without being persecuted by corporations.

please sign and reblog!

I briefly wondered if they had reneged on an existing contract, since it wasn’t entirely clear there on what grounds Infinito was bringing suit. But, apparently

not so much.

But the project was held up in court, and after irregularities were found in the approval process the mine’s approval was declared illegal. In 2011, Costa Rica banned all open-pit metal mining…

But international arbitration expert Gus Van Harten says Infinito Gold may have a case.

He says through international trade agreements signed between countries, international arbitrators have the power to override court and government decisions of sovereign countries.

“So on the one hand, in a way, it’s the Costa Rican government’s fault,” says the associate professor at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto.

He also says the international arbitration system is tainted, and that arbitrators, who are given immense power to settle disputes, aren’t proper judges.