Costa Rica will be adding its National Park number 29, announced the Minister of Environment and Energy, Carlos Manuel Rodríguez.

The new protected area is located in Miravalles, Guanacaste, and it will be named after Jorge Manuel Dengo Obregón (1918-1922), founder of the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE), Vice-President of Costa Rica (1986-1990) and minister (1982-1986), expert in Natural Disasters and environmentalist.

“Dengo was a great environmentalist, interested in the preservation of natural resources even before the country had the legislation of protected areas. He worked from ICE in the protection of the Grande de Orosi River which is now Tapantí National Park; without his vision we wouldn’t have this park today which provides half the water we use in the metropolitan area and it’s a source of energy”, explained Ramírez.

Approximately 25% of the Costa Rican territory is protected comprised of of 29 national parks, 51 wildlife refuges, 13 forest reserves and 8 biological reserves.

The national parks system protects areas of existing vegetation and some parks have also made efforts to reactivate areas considered secondary forests. Beaches, volcanoes, rainforests, dry forests are just part of the areas protected by the system.