An update of satellite maps linked to NASA reveal that there were 66,266 hectares of pineapple planted by 2017, as shown by the satellite images of the Monitoring Productive Landscape Use Changes (MOCUPP) of Costa Rica, prepared by the PRIAS Laboratory of the National High Technology Center (CENAT) of CONARE. (available on the site: http://www.snitcr.go.cr/)
This same research center discovered that there were some 57,327 hectares of pineapples in the country in 2016. From 2016 to 2017, pineapple producers increased the cultivated area by 9,000 hectares, i.e. an increase of 15.7% in just one year.
The PRIAS Laboratory also found that there were 1,482 hectares within Protected Wild Areas, among which the North Border Corridor Refuge, the Maquenque Wildlife Refuge, and Barra del Colorado stand out.
The overlap of pineapple production with the areas that are supposed to be dedicated to the conservation of nature had already been denounced by the Costa Rican Federation for the Conservation of Nature (FECON) in 2017, when they proved there were 1,112 hectares of pineapple within ASP. A year later, the PRIAS reveals that there were 370 additional hectares in 2017.
Source: El Pais
Translation: Freshplaza