Federal funds for seabird protection face sharp cut

The Federal Treasury's preliminary budget for the 2027 fiscal year, released this week, proposes a thirty-two percent reduction in funding for coastal seabird protection and monitoring across all four regions. For Costa Mar, which hosts the republic's largest nesting colonies of frigatebirds and brown pelicans, the cut would translate into a loss of nearly half a million florins in annual spending—money that has underwritten the Punta Verde Seabird Sanctuary and the regional monitoring network that tracks population health.

The timing of the proposal has alarmed conservation officials and marine researchers. Over the past eighteen months, Costa Mar's seabird populations have experienced two significant die-off events, both attributed to a combination of warming sea temperatures, shifting fish distributions, and food-web disruption. The most recent event, in March, killed an estimated four hundred frigatebirds at Punta Verde alone. A second monitoring station at Isla Blanca recorded similar losses among breeding pairs.

Federal Cultural Affairs Minister Yuki Iwasaki defended the budget proposal in a statement, citing fiscal restraint and a reallocation of resources toward federal translation and civic infrastructure. The statement did not address the seabird funding specifically. The Federal Assembly's budget committee is scheduled to review the proposal in July, with a final vote expected before the August recess.