10.— The Georeferenced Digital Geodatabase (GDG) of the IGN on the Maritime-Terrestrial Zone is technically grounded in the application of the regulatory framework established by:
- a)Decreto Ejecutivo N° 7841-P, the Regulations to Ley N° 6043 on the Maritime-Terrestrial Zone;
- b)Decreto Ejecutivo N° 33797-MJ-MOPT, Declaring the Official Horizontal Datum for Costa Rica as CR05 and its associated cartographic projection CRTM05;
- c)Decreto Ejecutivo N° 36642-MP-MOPT-MINAET, the Specifications Regulations for the Delimitation of the Public Zone of the Maritime-Terrestrial Zone;
- d)Decreto Ejecutivo Nº 40962-MJP, the Update of the Official Horizontal Geodetic Reference System for Costa Rica; and
- e)Directriz DIG-01-2025, the Update of Public Zone Information of the Maritime-Terrestrial Zone with respect to the Horizontal Reference System CR-SIRGAS for the measurement epoch 2014.59.
11.— Article 16 of Ley N° 7575, Ley Forestal, dated February 13, 1996, and its amendments, establishes that MINAE shall demarcate in the field the boundaries of the areas comprising the State Natural Heritage (Patrimonio Natural del Estado).
12.— Article 11 of Chapter I, General Provisions, of Ley N° 6043, the Law on the Maritime-Terrestrial Zone, dated March 2, 1977, and its amendments, establishes that the "Public zone also includes, regardless of its extent, all land occupied by mangroves (manglares) of the continental and insular coastlines and estuaries (esteros) of the national territory." 13.— Decreto Ejecutivo N° 36786-MINAET, the Manual for the Classification of Lands Dedicated to the Conservation of Natural Resources within the Maritime-Terrestrial Zone in Costa Rica, dated August 12, 2011, sets among its objectives to "Identify within the Maritime-Terrestrial Zone those lands classified as forests, forestry-suitable land (Class VII and VIII soils), wetlands (humedales) (mangroves, estuaries, inlets (rías), salt marshes (marismas), coastal lagoons, swamps, flooded forests, salt flats (salitrales)), in order to certify them and incorporate them as part of the State Natural Heritage (PNE)." 14.— Decreto Ejecutivo N° 36786-MINAET, in Section III.— Jurisdiction for Delimitation and Certification, establishes that "The classification of lands within the ZMT shall be the responsibility of the Conservation Areas (Áreas de Conservación, AC) of SINAC and of private professionals duly accredited by the relevant Professional Associations (Colegios Profesionales) to classify forests, forestry-suitable land (Class VII and VIII soils), (mangroves, estuaries, inlets, salt marshes, coastal lagoons, swamps, flooded forests, salt flats), and wetlands.
The validity of classification documents issued by private professionals shall be subject to the approval of the AC having territorial jurisdiction. The AC of SINAC with jurisdiction over the ZMT shall also be responsible for the verification, oversight, boundary determination (deslinde), and certification of State Natural Heritage lands and protection zones (zonas de protección).
The location and delimitation of State Natural Heritage areas within the Maritime-Terrestrial Zone must be carried out as part of the approval process for the Coastal Regulatory Plan (Plan Regulador Costero, PRC), as defined by Ley 6043, since the Coastal Regulatory Plan is the land-use planning instrument that defines and locates all zones to be conceded within the ZMT and for classifying them at the level of cadastral maps (planos de catastro). Therefore, the Coastal Regulatory Plan must clearly and expressly indicate the PNE areas so that they are not counted in the total area available for concession." 15.— The IGN employed the Georeferenced Digital Delimitation methodology to delimit the public zone of the Maritime-Terrestrial Zone corresponding to a mangrove sector at Playa Pedregosa, district 08º Cabo Velas, canton 03º Santa Cruz, province 05º Guanacaste.
16.— By means of official communications ACT-OSRSCC-997-2023 dated August 31, 2023, signed by Mr. Orlando Matarrita Suárez, Acting Head of the Subregional Office of Santa Cruz Carrillo, Guanacaste; and DDUR-DCT-IGN-0110-02-2024 dated February 27, 2024, signed by Ms. Alejandra Sancho Perlaza and Ms. Karina Cruz Campos, both engineers in the Department of Cadastre and Topography (Departamento de Catastro y Topografía) of the Municipality of Santa Cruz; the completed delimitation and technical report are presented and approved.
17.— The delimitation of the public zone of the ZMT in the canton of Santa Cruz was carried out under the Cooperation Agreement between the Sistema Nacional de Áreas de Conservación and the Municipality of Santa Cruz, and was implemented through the hiring of the company STEREOCARTO CENTROAMERICA S.A., under tender 2022LA-000021-0021000001, pursuant to official communication CTPR-SINAC_ACT-0043-10-2023 (DDUR-DCTSINAC_ACT-0630-10-2023) dated October 10, 2023.
18.— By means of official communication DIG-GDF-007-2025 dated May 28, 2025, issued by the Topography Sub-process of the Department of Geodesy and Geophysics of the Instituto Geográfico Nacional, a Technical Review Report was issued for the publication of the georeferenced digital delimitation of the public zone, in connection with the work carried out by SINAC-ACT concerning the delimitation of a mangrove sector at Playa Pedregosa, with the delimitation technically endorsed for publication.
19.— Article 140 of Ley N° 6227, the General Administrative Procedure Act, dated May 2, 1978, and its amendments, states that "the administrative act (acto administrativo) shall take effect after it is communicated to the person administered, except where it solely confers rights, in which case it shall take effect from the moment it is adopted," a provision that must necessarily be read in conjunction with Article 240, paragraph 1), of the same legal body, which defines the appropriate instrument for communicating acts of a general nature by stating that: "General acts shall be communicated by publication, and specific acts by notification." HEREBY ANNOUNCES:
First: That, between August 31, 2023 and February 27, 2024, SINAC-ACT carried out the fieldwork for the georeferenced digital delimitation to the national coordinate system of the public zone of a mangrove sector at Playa Pedregosa, district 08° Cabo Velas, canton 03º Santa Cruz, province 05º Guanacaste.
Second: The Instituto Geográfico Nacional publishes the georeferenced digital delimitation of the public zone defined by 13 points describing a mangrove sector located at Playa Pedregosa, district 08º Cabo Velas, canton 03º Santa Cruz, province 05º Guanacaste, on the basis of the Specifications Regulations for the Delimitation of the Public Zone of the Maritime-Terrestrial Zone and the methodology used and validated by the Área de Conservación Tempisque (SINAC-ACT).
Third: That the delimited public zone corresponds to a mangrove sector located at Playa Pedregosa, district 08º Cabo Velas, canton 03º Santa Cruz, province 05º Guanacaste, in accordance with official communications DIG-GDF-007-2025 dated May 28, 2025, issued by the Topography Sub-process of the Department of Geodesy and Geophysics of the Instituto Geográfico Nacional; ACT-OSRSCC-997-2023 dated August 31, 2023, signed by Mr. Orlando Matarrita Suárez, Acting Head of the Subregional Office of Santa Cruz Carrillo, Guanacaste; and DDUR-DCT-IGN-0110-02-2024 dated February 27, 2024, signed by Ms. Alejandra Sancho Perlaza and Ms. Karina Cruz Campos, both engineers in the Department of Cadastre and Topography of the Municipality of Santa Cruz.
Fourth: The public zone of the Maritime-Terrestrial Zone corresponding to a mangrove sector at Playa Pedregosa, district 08° Cabo Velas, canton 03° Santa Cruz, province 05° Guanacaste, corresponds to the following coordinates in the official cartographic projection system of Costa Rica CRTM05/CR05 and its update with respect to the Horizontal Reference System CR-SIRGAS:
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Sixth: The official technical data for the georeferenced digital delimitation of the public zone of the Maritime-Terrestrial Zone of a mangrove sector at Playa Pedregosa, district 08° Cabo Velas, canton 03° Santa Cruz, province 05° Guanacaste, have been recorded in the Georeferenced Digital Geodatabase (GDG) of the Instituto Geográfico Nacional (IGN) on the Maritime-Terrestrial Zone (ZMT), in a shapefile vector-format file, under the coding: ZONA PUBLICA_ mojones.
Seventh: With this delimitation, boundary marker M21A, published in the Diario Oficial La Gaceta N° 91 of May 14, 1984, is removed from the Maritime-Terrestrial Zone Registry.
Eighth: This takes effect upon publication.
Done in Curridabat, San José, on July 4, 2025.
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