With an extension of 1,518 hectares, La Marta Wildlife Refuge is in Cartago, part of the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve La Amistad, 60% of its territory corresponds to primary forest while the remaining 40% is secondary forest in different stages of natural regeneration. Located just two and a half hours away from San José this is a great location for a one day tour in Costa Rica. The way to La Ma...

Rainforests, known as the "jewels of the planet" because of their extensive biodiversity, are the most important ecosystems in Costa Rica, providing a home for a wide variety of plants and wildlife. Jaguars, pumas, woodpeckers, toucans and poisonous snakes are among the wildlife that visitors can encounter in the Central American country's rainforests. Rainforest Adventures has been operatin...

President of Costa Rica Luis Guillermo Solís, declared November 3 as the National Day of Biosphere Reserves in recognition to the determinant role that these territories have in the conservation of biodiversity and the use of natural resources. The decree, signed in San Gerardo de Dota by the President and the Minister of Environment, Edgar Guttierrez, also includes clear dispositions that esta...

Costa Rican scientists documented for the first time the nest of a yellow-eared toucanet (Selenidera spectabilis), the species of toucan that is hardest to see in the country because of its shyness and of which little is known in terms of reproduction biology. Tourism guides from the company Rainforest Adventures whose property is in close proximity to the Braulio Carrillo National Park, found ...

A group of Costa Ricans with a passion for science, the environment and surf have been working on a way to replace the polyurethane (a polymer and the fifth type of plastic most used in the world) found in surfboards for another more environmentally friendly material. Surfboards are generally made with polyurethane foam blank, fiberglass and polyester resin. The contamination caused by a surfbo...

A private lawsuit has been brought against the Municipality of Garabito, in Costa Rica's Central Pacific region, the Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MOPT) and the Directorate General of Transit (DGT) for a perceived dangerous situation along the southern Pacific coastal highway. Walter Brenes, a lawyer with the Energy Law Firm (ELF), filed the injunction against the entities requesting ...

Ever been curious about how those miniature trees are made? This weekend, the the University of Cota Rica's Lankester Botanical Gardens near Paraiso, Cartago, there will be exhibits of a variety of bonsai trees, as well as tea drinking ceremonies in the mornings, and free workshops (with your entrance fee) on bonsai techniques. Local bonsai groups, with support from the Japanese Embassy, are...

Turtle Island announces Cocos Island, Costa Rica conservation scholarship Applications can be sent in English or Spanish The international marine wildlife protection organization, Turtle Island, is offering a scholarship for a person in the beginning or early stages of his or her marine conservation career to participate a ten-day shark and turtle tagging expedition. The expedit...

A husband-and-wife veterinarian team has transformed their farm in Tarbaca de Aserrí, in the hills south of San José, into a refuge for abandoned and injured animals. When their good intentions of helping a few stray animals started to burgeon into a serious undertaking they formed a non-profit association called the Costa Rican Association for Animal Welfare (Acoproba, in Spanish). With the...

The Poás Volcano in Alajuela, Costa Rica is presenting activity this Monday evening (July 3, starting at 10:30 p.m.) and it is expelling fragments of fresh lava from the main emission point, denominated Boca Roja (Red Mouth), reported Dr. Mauricio Mora from the National Seismology Network. This type of activity, known as strombolian eruptions began in the early morning hours of July 1st whe...

Community-minded citizens in Heredia, Costa Rica are concerned about continued attempts by a coalition of business owners, local governments, and others to roll back protections of Costa Rica's water resources, said Conceverde (which translates to the Environmental Association of North San Rafael de Heredia). Rulings over the past years by the country's high court, the Sala IV, have upheld what...

With the support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Central Pacific county of Garabito is the first in Costa Rica to implement a public policy on controlling and monitoring plastics on its beaches, said the international agency yesterday. The beaches of Jacó, Hermosa, Herradura, Tárcoles and Guacalillo will be jointly monitored by surfers and the municipal government to fight...

Photo Credit: Tundi Agardy. Association Costa Rica por Siempre The Association Costa Rica por Siempre, a private non-profit association created in 2009 with the objective of contributing with the conservation of nature in Costa Rica, announced its partnership with Leonardo DiCaprio foundation to join efforts for the protection of the oceans. “The Leonardo DiCaprio foundation (LDF) is dedicat...

Joshua Ten Brink, a Costa Rican tourist who was enjoying a few days of vacation in Tambor beach, Puntarenas, was able to capture an amazing video this Monday. Brink explained he was taking a last stroll on the beach when he saw what he thought was a log in the ocean, he then noticed it was moving and realized it was a crocodile, he ran for his camera and was able to capture the reptile just...

Would you expect to find 19 roosters stashed in the trunk of a car? Well, Costa Rican police officers in the southern San José district of Desamparados were sure surprised when they decided to follow and search a suspicious-looking car. They found roosters stashed in the car trunk along with various implements used for cock fighting including 81 spurs for the roosters. When police were pa...

Sport fishermen in Costa Rica are even happier than usual these days with regular sightings of larger schools of fish and dolphins, said the Costa Rican Fishing Federation, FECOP. They are chalking the increasing up to tough restrictions signed into law by Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solís in 2014 prohibiting tuna purse-seine operations within 45 miles of the coast. "This effectivel...

154 baby leatherback sea turtles that were born in the rescue center built by APM Terminals next to the new Container Terminal, were released at Moín Beach in Limón. A group of biologists from the Tropical Scientific Center looks after the eggs at the rescue center to protect them from poachers and predators, it also works on relocating nests that turtles have left very close to the tide line. ...

As is typical around the new moon, tides will be higher than usual starting tomorrow and lasting until around Wednesday of next week on both the Pacific and Caribbean coasts of Costa Rica, detailed a report by Omar G. Lizano Rodríguez, coordinator of the Oceanographic Information Module (MIO, its initials in Spanish) at the University of  Costa Rica's Center for Research in Marine Sciences and Lim...

Acting Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Judith Garber is in San Jose, Costa Rica this week. Her 3-day visit will focus on environmental issues and sustainable trade, said the U.S. Department of State's office of the spokesperson in a statement Tuesday. On June 20, Garber met with Costa Rican Minister of Environment ...

Costa Rica and Japan yesterday signed a financing for the sum of about US$240 million (25,991 million yen) for the construction of the Borinquen I geothermal energy plant, reported the state-owned Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE). This will be the third geothermal plant in the country, coming after the Miravalles and the Las Pailas projects. The 55-megawatt facility in the northern Gu...

The activity began at 11 a.m. this morning at the Poás Volcano, the cameras located in different points of the National Park captured two “mouths” or active emanation points. Large columns of gases, vapor and ash were emanating from the volcano for several hours and at 1:50 p.m. a larger eruption was registered which reached 400 meters above the crater (3108 meters above sea level or 10,194...

Roger Leiva Calderon, President of AQUA and co-founder of FUDEBIOL Biological Center of Quebradas, led this year’s campaign to plant 500 new trees near and bordering the Quebradas River of Costa Rica’s Southern Zone. The last of the of the 500 trees was planted on Sunday, in celebration of El Dia del Arbol (The Day of the Tree), celebrated annually on June 15th, as signed into law by President Alf...

During a visit to Costa Rica, Minister Barbara Hendricks of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Construction and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) of the Federal Republic of Germany, announced support in the amount of 15 million Euros to aid Costa Rica work on mitigation and adaptation to climate change, reported the Costa Rican government. During a visit that began on Friday 16 ...

The Butterfly Palace & Rainforest Adventure in Branson, Missouri announced big plans for increasing conservation efforts for butterflies in 2017, including a major land purchase in Costa Rica. “We are committing $90,000 over this next year to help save butterflies and the rainforests they call home,” said Butterfly Palace owner, Bruce Herschend, in a press release. The money will go towa...

Costa Rica is looking to reach 300 days of running in clean energy breaking the mark of 271 days the country achieved during 2015 and 2016. The weather conditions during the first semester of the year and the new energy generation plants will allow the country to surpass its goal of producing energy from 100% renewable sources. In the first five months of this year bunker plants have been us...

Photo Credit: Dr. Pablo Ruiz Turrialba, Poás and Rincón de la Vieja volcanoes have continued to register activity on and off throughout all week, with several eruptions sometimes including ash but mostly consisting in gases and steam. The eruptions registered in Poás volcano are non-explosive but extend for long periods of time presenting internal seismic activity and low frequency tremor that ...

A group of three American tourist and their Costa Rican guide were able to capture today a video of a young tapir (Tapirus bairdii) bathing in a sector of the Celeste River in the Tenorio Volcano National Park in Guanacaste (video included at the end of the article). The tourism guide in an interview with local journalist Allan Jara, explains that the video was taken when it had just began to r...

Celebrations were held throughout Costa Rica yesterday, June 15, in honor of the international tree day, and officials as well as school children were photographed planting trees. Conservationists say that while progress has been made, efforts need to continue. Costa Rica's current forest cover comprises 52 percent of the nation's territory, detailed a report on the country's Monumental Radio s...

Costa Rica's Imperial Silver has launched the sale of its beer in the U.S. state of Colorado and the makers of Cerveza Imperial will join hands with statewide water conservation campaigns as part of its larger commitment to environmental sustainability, reported the company to Businesswire. “We have committed to a revolutionary concept of being the world’s first and only ‘water positive’ be...

The Santa Cruz, Guanacaste municipal government swore in a new set of leaders for its environmental commission this week. Representative from 24 local organizations, autonomous institutions, ministries and private sector companies will be coordinating the area's environmental agenda that includes recycling, reforestation, solid waste treatment, and water resource management, among other aspects. ...

Photo Credit: Rio Savegre Costa Rica Christian Lee / Fotografia Back in April costa Rica Costa Rica nominated Savegre River to be recognized as its fourth biosphere reserve, and this Wednesday afternoon the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) International Coordinating Council of the Man and the Biosphere Program that was meeting in Paris, France, recognize...

A donation by the United States government of US$1.3 million will turn the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) into an environmental management model, and will allow EARTH University to receive more students from all over the world, said the U.S. Embassy at a ceremony this week. The funds will be used to improve EARTH University's infrastructure and to turn the La Selva Biological Station, a ...

Farmers from a small coffee collective close to Parque Internacional La Amistad remind each other (and visitors) to come off the mountain before dark – because of possible jaguar encounters. Café Britt has partnered with the Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica Conservation and Wildlife Management International Institute (ICOMVIS) in a remarkable new “Programa Jaguar”, destined to help save the end...

Last week, as part of a series of actions announced on World Oceans Day, Costa Rica unveiled a new marine protected area on the country’s Pacific coast, contributing to the global goal of protecting at least 10 percent of marine zones before the year 2020, said the United Nations Environment Program. The new protected marine area at Cabo Blanco, with an extension of more than 800 square kilomet...

Researchers from Costa Rica's Tropical Agronomic Research and Teaching Center and the non-profit Conservation International published findings on the impact of climate change in Latin America. Climatic Change magazine's special edition in March, Climate Change Impacts on Ecosystems, Agriculture and Smallholder Farmers in Central America, detailed the negative impacts of climate change in Centra...

This Sunday, June 11 at 5:42 a.m. the Rincón de la Vieja Volcano in Guanacaste, registered a new eruption, the column was not visible due to the cloudy conditions in the area at this hour. Neighbors of the area were able to capture the vapor in the river product of a small lahar to the North of the volcano.The Penjamo river shows a grayish coloration and a strong sulfur-like odor. The Rincón...

How can drinking beer help the environment? Costa Rican-based Cerveza Imperial, the world's first and only water positive beer, has chosen San Diego as one of two markets along with Denver for its re-launch. To spread its water positive concept of "giving more than it takes," Imperial will partner with Surfrider Foundation San Diego, California Surf Museum, Aaron Chang, and various clean-up events...

When we hear that Costa Rica is rich in biodiversity we usually think about birds, monkeys, felines, even snakes; spiders, however, are probably the last thing to come to mind, yet Costa Rica has more than 1,800 species of spiders, including, one of the most dangerous in the world. The Brazilian Wandering Spider (Genus: Phoneutria) considered one of the most dangerous spiders in the world is mo...

A study carried out by The Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) for the Climate Change Direction of the Costa Rican Ministry of Environment and Energie (MINAE), established that if the concentrations of contaminating particles in the air where within the limit established by the Word Health Organization, not only would the health and quality of life of the population ...

Saturday, June 3 around 2:30 p.m., at the beach Organos, Paquera in Puntarenas, authorities were alerted to the presence of a more than 8-foot long crocodile. Though part of the animal's usual habits, to come out of nearby rivers and roam beaches, the animals do pose an increasing risk to growing numbers of tourists to some beaches. According to the communications department of the fire depa...