• Costa Rica is renowned for its comprehensive laws that safeguard forest cover and wildlife, protecting its status as a biodiversity hotspot that attracts millions of tourists every year.
• Yet wildlife rescue centers persistently point out that the level of care that authorities have promised has not yet been fully realized on multiple issues, including the issue of increasing electrocution deaths of sloths, kinkajous, monkeys and other animals traversing exposed electricity transmission lines after their forests have been cut.
• Many of these NGOs recently came together to form a coalition to bring awareness to the fact that most of the nation’s electrical infrastructure is installed aerially and without insulation, laying deadly traps for all arboreal animals.
• This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

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Costa Rica is world-renowned for its commitment to preserving biodiversity and wildlife. The country’s fervor to protect its ecosystems recently earned it the Earthshot Prize for Protecting and Restoring Nature, a significant international recognition for environmental protection. However, even a country as environmentally conscious as Costa Rica apparently cannot steer clear of the ongoing spread of urbanization and deforestation that threatens local wildlife.

As forests and jungles give way to new homes and roads, animals are forced to adapt to their new surroundings and human neighbors. A vast and deadly obstacle in this process is electrical wires and transformers, which cause fatal wildlife electrocutions.

This deadly problem is primarily caused by the fact that most of Costa Rica’s electrical infrastructure is installed aerially using conductive materials that lack insulation (e.g., aluminum conductors without protection). Combined with the high voltages carried by these wires, this creates a highly hazardous situation, putting any living being at risk of electrocution when coming into contact.

As animals face intrusions into their natural habitats and need to move, they begin using electrical wires like they typically use tree branches, particularly when crossing roads. Combining constant contact with high-voltage power lines, it is therefore not difficult to believe that electrocution is one of the biggest causes of wildlife deaths in Costa Rica. In particular, 6,262 reported cases of wildlife electrocution happened just between June 2022 and June 2023, with the most affected species among mammals being squirrels, foxes, monkeys, kinkajous and sloths.

A howler monkey traverses unprotected electric lines in Costa Rica, a situation that leads to electrocution deaths of many monkeys, sloths, kinkajous and more. Image courtesy of International Animal Rescue.

Local nongovernmental conservation organizations and wildlife rescue centers have long been concerned about these findings, and the constant animal suffering caused, so the mission of protecting wildlife from electrocutions has been at the center of ongoing advocacy struggles. In January 2024, this culminated in the enactment of Executive Decree No. 44329 by the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE).

The objective of the decree, with the official name “Officialization of the Instruments for the Prevention and Mitigation of Wildlife Electrocution by Power Lines in Costa Rica,” was to operationalize obligations that stem from different legislative documents. That means it does not confer any new legal obligations, but provides specific, concrete measures that its addressees should implement. When deciding on such concrete actions, it refers directly to the “Guide for the Prevention and Mitigation of Wildlife Electrocution in Electrical Power Lines in Costa Rica,” a technical document prepared by stakeholders from various fields.

In particular, the decree requires the implementation of all necessary actions to prevent ecosystem fragmentation caused by the electrical network, such as rerouting or retrofitting electrical infrastructure in wildlife-rich or high-risk zones; using insulated conductors or covering exposed parts; avoiding high canopy crossings; or providing wildlife-safe crossings. Additionally, the electricity providers are to continuously identify hotspots of wildlife electrocution in the existing electrical network within their distribution areas and prioritize areas where the electrical network is used or visited by species that are endangered or have reduced populations, are migratory, endemic, or identified as highly affected by electrocution in electrical networks.

The decree applies not only to electricity providers, but also electrical operators, public agencies, private contractors, and consultants who work on electrical infrastructure projects, whether existing or new, and so all of these must take potential wildlife electrocutions into account in their impact assessments. Failing to comply can result in administrative sanctions, which MINAE and a special working group, GES, created by the decree are tasked with as part of the monitoring and administrative oversight.

Upon its enactment, the general public welcomed the decree as “a landmark achievement” and “a significant step” towards the protection of biodiversity in Costa Rica. During its promulgation, Franz Tattenbach, the minister of environment and energy, highlighted the collaborative efforts that went into producing the decree, suggesting its promising nature.

See related: Bridges in the sky carry sloths to safety in Costa Rica

A monkey in treatment for injuries suffered from traversing unprotected electric lines in Costa Rica. Image courtesy of International Animal Rescue.

Lack of implementation spurs ‘Esto No Es Pura Vida’ campaign

More than a year since the decree entered into force, its effects are hardly observable, argue local animal rescue centers, with some labeling it a “missed opportunity.” Disappointed and angered by the lax implementation, 19 of them established a coalition called “Esto No Es Pura Vida” (“This Is Not Pura Vida,” or ENEPV), which aims to reduce electrocution deaths by advocating for the enforcement of existing laws and holding responsible institutions accountable. They focus primarily on education, community involvement, data collection, the spreading of awareness about electrocution on social media, and, ultimately, created a petition addressed to MINAE and GES.

In their petition, the ENEPV coalition urges MINAE to fulfill its oversight role under the decree, ensuring that public institutions and electric utility companies implement the required actions. In particular, they demand that MINAE supervise compliance with the technical and environmental measures outlined in the decree, coordinate the implementation of work plans with the relevant institutions, and enforce the legal environmental framework, including the application of sanctions for noncompliance.

Under Article 27 of the Costa Rican Constitution, every person has the right to address a petition to public authorities (“derecho de petición”) and to obtain a timely, reasoned response. A petition, as such, is not legally binding; however, a petition endorsed by thousands of citizens can leverage political will and attract international attention, which can influence funding, monitoring or external pressure.

So, the petition has good potential to get attention for the issue, which is much needed, as Gavin Bruce, CEO of International Animal Rescue, the organization I intern for and one of the members of the ENEPV coalition, recently said: “Costa Rica markets itself as a haven of sustainability, ‘Pura Vida.’ But allowing animals to burn to death or suffer from horrific injuries on uninsulated power lines is the very opposite of that. We need urgent and meaningful action, as agreed upon in the decree last year. It’s time for action, enough of these empty promises.”

See related: Swinging to safety: How canopy bridges may save Costa Rica’s howlers

Solutions to the problem of deforestation, like rope bridges installed by conservation groups, help arboreal animals like this mantled howler monkey avoid crossing roads or open areas, to avoid injury from cars or dogs. Image courtesy of the Sloth Conservation Foundation.

Success and parallel actions

The campaign has received nationwide attention and has collected more than 16,500 signatures to date. The coalition’s efforts have even reached the debate floor of the national Legislative Assembly, with Congresswoman Cynthia Córdoba publicly voicing her support of ENEPV.

At the same time, parallel actions with a related mission have occurred nationwide, some of which have been carried out in collaboration with ENEPV. In particular, environmental lawyer Walter Brenes of the ENERGY law firm has filed a precautionary suit against the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) for their inaction on electrocution deaths, while Roger Guevara, Raúl Guevara and Mariano Batalla, from the law firm Alta Batalla, filed a constitutional appeal against the executive branch, ICE and the National Power and Light Company (CNFL) over the mass electrocution of howler monkeys.

The Administrative Court denied Brenes’s appeal on the basis of failing to establish the serious harm that would continue if ICE were not compelled to change its actions. In particular, the court mentioned that many of the issues would require a deeper merits analysis, such as defining a “hot zone,” locating accidents by zone, and analyzing broader implications. Brenes has filed an appeal, which is still pending, as is the constitutional appeal filed by Alta Batalla at the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice.

A new bill?

What is currently on the table isn’t just better implementation, but a wholly new and stronger law on the topic. Córdoba, an independent member of the legislature, presented a new draft law titled “Law for Responsible Electrification” on the topic of electrocution prevention on June 26, 2025.

The proposal for the draft law mentions that while the decree contained important provisions and set out useful examples of wildlife electrocution prevention,  as an implementation act it lacks stronger legal power that would be particularly useful in relation to penalties for noncompliance, as well as the ability to legislate for mandatory enforcement of key phrases of mitigation. While the substance of the decree in combination with the guide is thus not significantly different from the draft law, the latter lends greater legal force to the measures and makes them more specific, rather than descriptive and, in some cases, suggestive, hoping to fix the lax implementation by legal force.

Up until now, the draft law has not received any votes and has not yet been acted on, pending further debate. The next steps in the legislative process are various committee reviews, public hearings, plenary discussions, a first and/or second debate, and an eventual vote.

While the substance of the draft law seems promising, it will be interesting to see whether, if the law passes, attaching stronger legal force to mitigation measures was the sole factor that has been missing in the quest to solve the problematic implementation gap in stopping wildlife electrocutions from happening on a mass scale, as they have been until now.

 

Elena Kukovica is a legal researcher focusing on environmental law, animal law and Indigenous rights. She is currently interning at the International Animal Rescue wildlife rescue center, a member of the ENEPV coalition, in Nosara, Costa Rica.

Banner image: Monkeys traverse unprotected electric lines in Costa Rica, a situation that leads to deaths of many monkeys, sloths, kinkajous and more. Image courtesy of International Animal Rescue. 

Related audio from Mongabay’s podcast: A conversation with author Natalie Kyriacou about animals, empathy, and solutions to our ecological challenges, listen here:

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