How fast your development moves depends on what category it falls into as far as the environmental impact it will have. Projects over 500m2 (which is most of them) need what’s known as a D-2 review. The D-2 form contains a comprehensive initial evaluation questionnaire that asks for data on everything from water and earth usage, to the amount of annual rainfall, to the noise the project will produce, to its density, earth movement, the amount of wastewater and exhaust it will emit – it’s rather comprehensive, and you will have to hire the environmental consultant to do it. Based on the score you get, your project will fall in to one of three categories:

B-2 – This is where you want to be. A category B-2 project only needs what’s known as a Declaración Jurada de Compromisos Ambientales or a Sworn Statement of Environmental Commitments. This is basically a letter, signed by the developer and the environmental consultant in the presence of a notary, swearing to take care of the environment. The projects that fall into the B-2 category are in an urban or otherwise developed area with good infrastructure; low density or low impact; and without much surrounding environment (jungle, rivers, endangered macaw populations) to protect. The time it takes to do a Declaracion Jurada de Compromisos Ambientales is negligible and depends for the most part on your notary’s schedule.

B-1 – More complicated. If your development falls into this category, you will need something known as a Pronostico-Plan de Gestion Ambiental, or Outlook-Plan for Environmental Management. This basically means that you will need to submit a plan to SETENA that lays out the risks that your project presents to the environment and how you plan to mitigate them. For this category of D-2, you will need to do a certain number of studies, depending on what SETENA requests. For example, in dry Guanacaste, SETENA will probably want a study on water impact. Likewise for your wastewater in most places. Even sizable projects can fall into the B-1 category if they are very well planned and in a reasonably developed area. As it requires a visit from a SETENA official, an Outlook-Plan for Environmental Management takes about two months for approval. As you can see, hiring good environmental consultants, having them present while drawing up the construction plans, and getting into a B-1 category can have a remarkable payoff in terms of timetable.

A – This is the doozy. Developments that fall into the “A” category need to do a comprehensive environmental impact study, which then must be approved by SETENA. A development gets an A-rating when it is large, dense, and located in an environmentally-fragile or undeveloped area. Note that both the impact of a development and the fragility of the environment are weighed, hence even the smallest shack could get an A-rating if it is to be built in fragile enough surroundings (virgin rain forest, steep slope above a water source, etc.). A comprehensive impact study takes about six months to do, and at least a year and a half for the SETENA review. A typical impact study is as thick as a Bible and contains many different studies, including, but not limited to, the development’s impact on:

• Soil quality
• Water resources
• Biodiversity
• The local community
• Archaeological artifacts
• Air quality
• Traffic

... and anything else that SETENA decides to request.

Setena gives you two chances to get it right, so be careful. Given a lack of understanding of how SETENA works and what its council is looking for, this process will take years. The rules of thumb are to hire a consultant who knows what he’s doing, and maybe don’t do projects that will have a massive impact on the local environment (ie – no turning jungles into golf courses).

Finally, there are some tricky ways to get around SETENA. One that some developers have taken to is to file your big project as several smaller projects under 500m2, allowing them to slip into the D-1 category and avoiding doing an impact study for the whole enchilada. MINAET, however, has caught on to that trick, and it will get your project shut down. Certainly there are other tricks out there, but as MINAET enforcement improves, they will be less likely to save you time.