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Costa Rica is truly blessed by having 25% of its territory under the protection of a system of national reserves and parks. Not many countries are as lucky in this respect. Most of these protected areas, which total seventy five, have been established as such in the last thirty years. These seventy five areas contain approximately four percent of the world's flora, fauna and ecosystems, such as the rainforest, swamps, mangroves, dry forests, and several others.
Not all protected areas are considered parks, since there are also biological reserves, national wildlife refuges and privately owned reserves. A park is defined as a large expanse of land (usually 1000 hectares or more), which intends the conservation of an ecosystem or an area of scenic value. National Parks are the most visited conservation areas, and they include volcanoes (Volcan Poas, Volcan Irazu), many beaches or coastal areas (Tortuguero, Cahuita), rainforests (Braulio Carrillo), and even some islands, like the Isla del Coco.
Unlike a National Park, a biological reserve is more interested in protecting an ecosystem and its organisms, than a scenic or historical area. A National wildlife refuge or Refugio Nacional de Vida Silvestre or Refugio Nacional de Fauna Silvestre, is practically the same as a biological reserve, but it's usually less demarcated and there are very few services or rangers. Some examples of these are in Ostional- a beach important as a nesting site for turtles-, Curu- site for one of the country's successful artificial reefs- and Barra del Colorado- area that protects mammals, marine life and over 400 species of birds.
Apart from parks and biological reserves, there are several privately owned reserves, which are very well managed. One of the most famous of these reserves is the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, which was founded by the foreign Quaker community that settled it. Even though the entrance fee that is charged in the reserves doesn't go to the government (as in the other protected areas), the funds are properly reinvested in the projects.
Costa
Rica's impressive amount of terrain that's set apart as a protected area
is due largely to the contribution of two individuals: Olof Wessberg and
Karen Morgenson. These two foreigners began a letter-writing and fund-raising
activity in 1963 which intended the foundation of a reserve near their
residence in the Nicoya Peninsula, later called Reserva Natural Absoluta
Cabo Blanco. Their efforts, however, didn't only influence the establishment
of one reserve, but of the whole system of National Parks. A decade after
they began rallying for support, local consciousness had increased tremendously
and the National Parks service had been born.
