The state of exception (régimen de excepción) shall be understood as encompassing administrative activity and the disposition of public funds and goods, provided they are strictly necessary to resolve the pressing needs of persons and protect goods and services when, unequivocally, the required causal link exists between the event causing the state of emergency and the damages actually caused.
The works and projects necessary for addressing any of the emergency phases regulated in Article 30 of this law, as well as the actions established in the final paragraph of Article 15, are covered by the state of exception (régimen de excepción) and, therefore, their execution must not be subjected to ordinary red tape (tramitología ordinaria). Works necessary for addressing undeclared emergencies, regulated in the final paragraph of Article 15 of this law, and those executed in the response phase regulated in subsection a) of Article 30 in the case of declared emergencies, shall be exempt from completing permits and procedures related to the execution of works in watercourses (cauces), protected areas (zonas protegidas), wooded or forested areas (zonas boscosas o forestales), protection areas (áreas de protección), or border areas (áreas fronterizas). In these cases, and due to the urgent need that this type of action implies, the National Commission for Risk Prevention and Emergency Response (Comisión Nacional de Prevención de Riesgos y Atención de Emergencias) shall only communicate the intervention to be carried out and its respective justification to the competent public entity.
During the rehabilitation and reconstruction phases of a declared emergency, according to the regulations of subsections b) and c) of Article 30, the application of the state of exception (régimen de excepción) shall be conditioned on the incorporation of the projects and works into the General Emergency Plan (Plan General de la Emergencia). Said projects shall be exempt from complying with the ordinary red tape (tramitología ordinaria) in environmental matters pertaining to the execution of works in watercourses (cauces), protected areas (zonas protegidas), wooded or forested areas (zonas boscosas o forestales), protection areas (áreas de protección), or border areas (áreas fronterizas), for which the competent institutions shall have the obligation to implement extraordinary procedures for the approval of projects covered under an emergency decree that guarantee expedited attention to the procedures in reduced times without contravening the principles of environmental law. When the institutions do not have approved extraordinary procedures for addressing projects covered under an emergency decree, the works that are registered in the General Emergency Plan (Plan General de la Emergencia) and that must be intervened with the objective of avoiding serious harm to the environment or to persons shall be exempted from these procedures.
It shall become effective upon its publication.
Given at the Presidency of the Republic, San José, on the third of May, two thousand twenty-three.