As researchers scramble to understand how ecosystems react to the earth's changing climate, forests, especially tropical rainforests, are top on the list. This is because of their huge capacity to be "carbon sinks" or absorb tons of carbon pollution - from burning fossil fuels - that creates the greenhouse effect, or warming of the earth's climate. As global temperatures rise, and rainfa...

While Latin America as a whole has experienced marked deforestation, Costa Rica has proved the notable exception, and has sustained and even increased its forest cover, said a climate investigation published in the University of Costa Rica’s weekly Semanario Universidad. What has led to Costa Rica’s success? The United Nations Organization for Agriculture (FAO) says state support and incentives...

Zona de Los Santos, Costa Rica — High in the mountains of south central Costa Rica is the Zona de los Santos, an agricultural area with unique qualities and whose inhabitants have perfected  the art of growing and processing one of the best coffees in the world. A series of natural factors have enriched the region's mountainous land, and those who live here have discovered how to make the most ...

The Westin Conchal Golf Resort & Spa, on Costa Rica’s north central Pacific coast, is the first all-inclusive beach hotel in Latin America and the first Starwood chain member to qualify as carbon positive. Florida Inmobiliaria, a subsidiary of Florida Ice & Farm Co. (FIFCO), owner of the Conchal resort, set aside 40 hectares of dry forest and mangrove of the resort's some 930 hectares a...

Costa Rica currently has three biosphere reserves: La Amistad, Cordillera Volcánica Central and Agua y Paz; now it is trying to get a fourth one: Savegre River. What is a biosphere reserve? According to the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), these are “areas of terrestrial and coastal ecosystems which promote solutions reconciling the conservation of bio...

It’s always a good time to visit Costa Rica, but for the most part you will always hear it is best during the “summer” time, dry season actually is a better term considering it’s always summer in this country; however, traveling to Costa Rica during the green season or rainy season has its advantages. The green or rainy season in Costa Rica extends from May through December, however when it com...

The Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers (AyA) has moved on from awarding the country’s cleanest beaches to granting their eco-diplomatic awards this week. The AyA awarded four embassies in Costa Rica, and three Costa Rican embassies abroad for their notable efforts in energy and water saving such as reducing paper use, recycling and solid waste management, and minimizing fossil fuel c...

Want to learn how to make a terrarium or how to care for a pet turtle or snake? Have a question about caring for your horse? Or just want some old fashioned fun for the family? The Coronado Agricultural Fair, now in its 30th year, runs from April 27-30 in the hilly agricultural area northeast of San José. Featured activities include a Costa Rican snakes exhibit with information on the differ...

Glyphosphate is an herbicide used on coffee plantations in Costa Rica and other Central American countries. The chemical is included in the international Pesticide Action Network’s "List of Highly Hazardous Pesticides" and is targeted for global phaseout. Endosulfan is also used in Central American coffee production. It is “an off-patent organochlorine insecticide and acaricide that is being...

Costa Rica has a total of 28 National Parks and 72 areas that are either protected zones, biological reserves or wildlife refuges, covering over 26% of the total area of the country. Tourists both local and foreigners prefer coastal and mountain destinations, those that are conveniently located, are easily accessible and of course, those that have more attractions to offer. According to inform...

The Central Volcanic Mountain Range Conservation Area (ACCVC, its initials in Spanish) invites residents in the western Central Valley towns of Zarcero, Naranjo, Grecia, Sarchí, and Bajos del Toro to participate in a participatory process to create a management plan for El Chayote and Río Toro protected areas, said Costa Rican conservation officials. The plan will specify measures to be taken o...

The Offshore World Championship in Quepos, Costa Rica is the largest and most prestigious sport-fishing tournament in the world. The world-class event, held for the fifth consecutive year in Quepos, Puntarenas near Manuel Antonio National Park includes 55 of the world's best sport fishing teams. From April 24 - 28, at Marina Pez Vela, in Quepos, more than 300 people will compete to see who has ...

Playas del Coco, Guanacaste, Costa Rica: Guanacaste tourism operators and artisanal fishermen and women sent a letter today to the Legislative Assembly's environmental commission, calling on its members to vote against bill N° 19,838, known as the Sustainable Shrimp Trawling Bill, saying it will jeopardize the socio-economic livelihoods of thousands of Guanacaste families. The letter was signe...

“Discovery Costa Rica”, a $1 billion eco-tourism park will open in late 2020 near Liberia, Guanacaste, the cost of the project will be covered by Sun Latin America, and Discovery Communications Inc. will license its name to it in an effort to capitalize on followers from its Latin American channels which include Discovery Channel and Animal Planet. The park will include Discovery-branded hotels...

Max Machum started learning Spanish when, at age 7, he and his parents relocated to Guanacaste, in northern Costa Rica, from Alberta Canada's Rocky Mountains. By the time he was 12, the Canmore native had pioneered a local effort to eliminate plastic straws from restaurants and hotels to protect Guanacaste's Pacific beaches and wildlife from the often deadly effects of human pollution. After...

The Costa Rican Red Cross together with the American Red Cross met last week with residents in Guanacaste to follow up on a climate change mitigation project, reported the Red Cross in a news bulletin. Community leaders from the coastal towns of Corralillos and La Guinea in the district of Filadelfia, Guanacaste province discussed their progress and advances on a project called "Actions to Redu...

With over 41 million international arrivals in 2015 and an average growth of 5 percent, Latin America’s travel and tourism industry has incredible potential to help generate growth, create jobs and enable regional development, said a recent report by the World Economic Forum. Costa Rica ranked fourth in the forum's 2017 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report. Researchers said wh...

The Minister of Environment and Energy (Minae) Edgar Gutiérrez testified last week before the Costa Rican Legislative Assembly about the presence of 150 illegal wells along the coast in the district of ​​Santa Cruz, Guanacaste in the county of Nicoya. “The wells could jeopardize the water resource of the canton, since they threaten to end or contaminate the underground aquifers, leaving the com...

Tamarindo, Guanacaste: Today, Monday, April 10, the Municipal Council of Santa Cruz in the northern Costa Rican province of Guanacaste ordered a 22-day halt to the construction of a restaurant and cafeteria in the popular tourist beach town of Tamarindo. The construction of the new business came under the spotlight by local residents last month when they started building on a site the municipal...

It takes just a quick online search to find information and reports about the destruction of this important Costa Rican ecosystem, some dating back to 2011, and we are confident there was plenty of data available and alerting of the situation prior to this, yet in 2017 instead of seeing progress there are still reports of illegal human activity that keeps destroying this important wetland. Let’...

The National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC) and the Costa Rica Ministry of Environment will deploy a Holy Week operation to protect the natural resources throughout the touristic activities. The operation of control and surveillance will be in effect starting April 8 and through Sunday, April 16, with the finality of preventing the extraction of gold, illegal hunting, illegal transportat...

The Costa Rican nonprofit group, Asociación Mar a Mar (The Sea to Sea Association), is developing a unique outdoor experience that will allow hikers to traverse the country from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coast in two weeks. The trail is called El Camino de Costa Rica. “Our aim is to have every hiker in the world want to walk El Camino de Costa Rica, or part of it, at least once in their lifet...

Through a press release, the travel service company Cheapflights, pulled together their picks for 10 destinations to make a difference: top ecotourism impact spots with a line-up of hands-on, inspiring opportunities to play a role in protecting the planet. "In honor of Earth Day, make your next vacation more meaningful by giving the gift of your time to the planet. To inspire travelers to roll ...

This article originally appeared in Earth Island Journal . The retail giant is sourcing its Suli brand tuna from Mexican fishing fleets that harass and kill marine mammals, says nonprofit. Investigations by the nonprofit International Marine Mammal Project (IMMP) have revealed that Walmart Costa Rica stores are selling Walmart's brand of canned tuna that has been caught using fishing methods tha...

In Cutris, San Carlos, near Costa Rica’s northern border with Nicaragua, police arrested several men for allegedly panning for gold and using dangerous chemicals, said the Ministry of Public Security yesterday. Police are now asking for assistance from environmental organizations and the local community to aid them in restoring the area by helping remove trash and debris left by the gold panner...

Mission Blue just sailed out to the Costa Rica Thermal Dome Hope Spot with their partners at MarViva! Marviva is well-respected regional, non-governmental organization focusing on the conservation and sustainable use of marine and coastal resources, including the expansion of marine protected areas. In the Costa Rica Thermal Dome, MarViva and Mission Blue share the goal of raising awareness among...

Costa Rica continues its trend of achieving near total renewable energy production with a first quarter record of 99.06 percent, said the National Energy Control Center (CENCE) Hydroelectric makes up the bulk of energy production, which makes the renewables grid vulnerable at certain dry times of the year. State Electrical Institute (ICE) officials said that with summer climaxing in April in...

The National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC) reported that so far this 2017 there have been 25 forest fires in Protected Wildlife Areas. The most affected area has been the Central Pacific Region, where five fires affected 144 hectares. In general Guanacaste is the province that presents more forest fires during the summer time which extends through the middle of May. According t...

Costa Rica’s Ministry of Environment (MINAE) and the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC) formally filed the legal complaint for the confiscation of sharks that was done in March 20 by the park rangers of the Isla del Coco National Park to the ship Jose Pablo II, plates PW-4893 which was found fishing in protected areas. During the inspection, authorities seized 58 dead sharks located ...

President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order that starts to undo the environmental policies put in place by - and the legacy against climate change of - his predecessor, Barack Obama. A key element in Trump's executive order, signed at the Washington headquarters of the Environmental Protection Agency is that it eliminates the requirement that federal government agencies factor t...

A landmark conciliation agreement was reached this week in the community of Las Brisas, Upala in northern Costa Rica, said Edgar Araya, Broad Front Party (Frente Amplio) Legislator. A dialogue was held in the Community Hall of Las Brisas, Upala with local residents and representatives of the Las Brisas Agricultural Company to discuss the situation. "After many years of struggle, resistance a...

The disappearance of these fish would affect Costa Rica's US$599 million per year sport fishing industry, say experts. The Costa Rican Fisheries Federation (FECOP, its initials in Spanish) called for protecting marlin and sailfish from commercialization based on recent studies that show the large economic benefits reaped from maintaining healthy sea populations of these fish. “The data shows t...

Every year, Costa Rica's Blue Flag Program receives applications for their "Blue Flag" ecological recognition which rewards community efforts towards sustainable development. The program is a joint effort of the Costa Rican Tourism Institute and the Ecological Blue Flag National Commission, known in Costa Rica simply as the "Bandera Azul" program. The Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) anno...

Coast guard officials yesterday confiscated an estimated 30 kilos of marine life and arrested five Spaniards in connection with violating several fishing laws, reported the Public Security Ministry. The men were found in an overloaded fishing boat near the Gulf of Nicoya off the Pacific port town of Puntarenas, using prohibited fishing gear, among other irregularities, by officers of the Calder...

The Board of Directors of the Costa Rican Fisheries and Aquaculture Institute (Incopesca) announced today they would limit granting permits for tuna fishing in 2017 as a provisional measure while they implement a new model to better regulate the activity. The Costa Rican Presidency announced that the management model for the tuna industry is being reformulated in order to achieve a better balan...

- Only 5 percent of the tuna caught in Costa Rican waters is hauled in by local boats. Data from a recent study by the non-profit marine conservation foundation, MarViva, shows Costa Rica lagging behind in the tuna fishery industry, a resource that could aid struggling coastal economies. “At a time when the fisheries sector is in crisis, the country's fishing resources must be managed in a sci...

During 2017, various companies plan to strengthen their relations with public institutions through public-private initiatives aimed at social and environmental problems. Since 2013, the Purdy Motor Group has teamed up with the Ministry of Public Education to develop a program called Purdy Cole, which aims to have employees of the company complete their studies. Purdy turns their meeting rooms i...

Costa Rica now has its first national policy on wastewater sanitation and a funding plan that includes $520 million in infrastructure to provide long-awaited, significant improvements to the country’s public and environmental health. This policy is the result of priorities established in the National Development Plan (PND) created under the current administration. These include strengthening in...

Rural tourism is one of the many attractions Costa Rica has to offer, Finca El Porvenir (El Porvenir Estate) in Los Chiles, Alajuela, offers visitors an experience like no other. This 407 acre property has kept 50% of its territory for the preservation of primary and secondary forest, the other 50% of the property has a farm, a small, rustic house, and the rest is used to grow different organic...

According to MarViva Foundation 80% of the residues in our oceans are plastic, and 8 million tons of plastic end up in the oceans every year, a group of concerned Costa Rican’s take it upon themselves to make a difference and help the environment by collecting the plastic that washes ashore in the different beaches, one of these groups is the Nicoya Peninsula Waterkeeper, a non-government organiza...