environment

Squatters return to protected area

Police recently destroyed a house that they found in a national park.

It is illegal to live in a protected area, and Anam vowed to prosecute offenders.

Parque Nacional Camino de Cruces is once again being threatened by squatters. Officials with the Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente (Anam) discovered a makeshift house within the protected area last month. Park Director The National Environmental Authority (ANAM) found in late September, a medium build house within the forest. Park Director Norma Ponce said that the structure was discovered on the banks of the Río Pedro Miguel, near the El Centenario road.

Ponce said that items found at the site included a machete, a pair of rubber boots, men's clothing and newly planted orange trees. No one was there at the time, and the identity of the person or persons living there is not known.

Police tore down the house the same day it was found.

Ponce said that the environmental damage caused by the squatter was minimal, and appeared to be limited to the cutting down of a tree.

In a press release, Anam stated that people caught living inside a protected area would be subjected to arrest and prosecution. The agency had to crack down on squatters living inside the park in 2002, when some 15 families were discovered there. Those families have since relocated to the area next to the Rod Carew National Stadium.