Costa Rica Biodiversity

With a small territory of 51.100 km2, Costa Rica is one of the 20 countries with more biodiversity, it holds almost 5% of flora and fauna in the whole world. Enriched greatly by the geographic position by being a bridge between North and South America, its tropical weather with 7 weathers zones (Central Valley, North Pacific, Central Pacific, South Zone, North Zone, Caribbean and Coco Isle), forests (mature, secondary, deciduous, natural palm, plantation forests, mangroves, pastures with trees and paramos)  and the vast variety of habitats. In an 1.200 km2 area in the tropical forest at the center of Costa Rica, there are approximately 6.500 plant species.

In 1970, the national parks network was created and it is administered by the SINAC (Environment and Energy Ministry of Costa Rica department) and it is in charge of the maintenance of all the protected natural areas of the country (27 national parks and some biological and forest reserves).

The first natural reserve in the country was Cabo Blanco, founded in 1963. Our national parks and natural reserves are probably the first source of tourist attraction and tourism is a very important economic  and jobs source for Costa Rica. They also make it possible to be a carbon zero country.

Costa Rica has 360.000 insect species, 90% of Central America, 66% of the neotropic and 18% of the world’s butterflies are in the country. Costa Rica is also well known for the animals you can see while being in the wild such as exotic birds, amphibians, monkeys, sloths and others.

From 2014 to 2018, the country increased its protected areas by 26.51% terrestrial and 2.75% marine territories. However, some of these areas have lost territory or have deteriorated since then. The state of conservation has dropped, mostly in Guanacaste. The rivers are suffering from sedimentation, contamination and consequences of climate change. The lakes have dried up, most of them in the city.

Through investigation and research, scientists can predict the degree of threat of the species living in Costa Rica in the ecological importance areas in the country. The focus needs to go to protect the flora and fauna biodiversity to guarantee conservation.

The only possible option is sustainable development, which is to supply the necessities of today without compromising the future resources. By taking conscious decisions in between economic development and globalization, the solutions to industrialization issues can be targeted to stop the consequences.

Among mountain systems, volcanoes, beaches and forests, Costa Rica is very important to the world for all the flora and fauna it has. This small but rich territory deserves the best conservation that the government and every single person living in the country can provide and to apply all the measures available to produce less trash by upcycling, reducing and recycling