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Introduction: Environmental compensation is the final alternative to face the impacts of development projects that cannot be avoided, reduced, or mitigated. The offset of affected habitats or environmental elements usually substitutes ecologically equivalent resources. The Habitat-Hectare Method was initially designed to assess the ecological equivalence of native vegetation, and employs indicator scores relative to a reference habitat. The sum of these scores measures the structural condition of the environment against the reference, quantifying the number of hectares needed to compensate for the loss of similar habitat. Although it is not exempt from limitations, the values can be estimated from field data collected without ambiguity, in a reproducible way, with less bias than more qualitative methods. In this paper, we use a modification of the Habitat-Hectare Method to determine the equivalent area needed to compensate for habitat loss in a protected wilderness in Costa Rica. Methods: We worked in the Lomas de Barbudal Biological Reserve, north Pacific of Costa Rica, a protected wilderness where nearly 113 hectares will be flooded for the Río Piedras Reservoir. In a property previously identified as a potential compensation site, we assessed indicators for landscape, soil, vegetation structure, and ecosystem services; the scores were assigned in relation to the environment found at the flood site. Results: The environmental condition score at the compensation site was 44.7% (±15.9%) of the impact site. Consequently, considering the uncertainty in our measurements, compensating for the loss of each hectare would require between 2.23 and 3.49 hectares of a similar environment. Conclusion: Between 2.23 and 3.49 hectares of are needed to compensate for the loss of habitat in the Río Piedras Reservoir. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Se presenta un ensayo en que el autor interpreta la obra de teatro "La Cantante Calva," por Eugene Ionesco. Propone que se puede cotejar la obra de Ionesco con el análisis de Martin Heidegger sobre la impropiedad de la existencia en "Sein und Zeit." Se interpretan mutuamente el discurso de la filosofía y el del teatro. El autor trata de hacer un ejercicio de interpretación recíproca en que los personajes de "La Cantante Calva" asumen los rasgos de la impropiedad de la existencia que describe Heidegger. Los conceptos que la describe son la ambigüedad, las habladurías, la curiosidad, y el "se."

This paper criticizes the classification of Kant's ethics as a deontological ethics. The term, used for that purpose, is considered insufficient, even equivocal and ambiguous. Nowadays, deontology is used as a good resource to replace criticism -in ethical matters- with programs or regulations determined according to heteronymous interests, a task which is incompatible with Kantian ethics. Furthermore, the concept of duty theorized by Kant, in which are evident its ontological support and its aprioristic character, does not match the -empirical- duty privileged by deontology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]