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Costa Rica
National Parks Foundation
While much of Costa Rica has been
stripped of its forests, the country has managed to
protect a larger proportion of its land than any other
country in the world. In 1970 there came a growing
acknowledgment that something unique and lovely was
vanishing, and a systematic effort was begun to save
what was left of the wilderness. That year, the Costa
Ricans formed a national park system that has won
worldwide admiration. Costa Rican law declared inviolate
10.27 percent of a land once compared to Eden; an
additional 17 percent is legally set aside as forest
reserves, "buffer zones," wildlife refuges,
and Indian reserves. Throughout the country representative
sections of all the major habitats and ecosystems
are protected for tomorrow's generations. The National
Conservation Areas System (SINAC; see below) protects
more than 186 areas, including--at press time--32
national parks, eight biological reserves, 13 forest
reserves, and 51 wildlife refuges.
The Yellowstones and Yosemites of
Costa Rica--the lure for 90 percent of all visitors
to the park system--are Manuel Antonio, with its beautiful
beaches; Braulio Carrillo, with its rainforest beside
a highway; Tortuguero, a watery, forested world teeming
with wildlife; Irazú, where on a clear day
you can see both the Caribbean and the Pacific; and
Poás, where you can peer into a steaming crater
and see the earth's crust being rearranged.
Besides providing Costa Ricans and
foreign travelers with the privilege of admiring and
studying the wonders of nature, the national parks
and reserves protect the soil and watersheds and harbor
an estimated 75 percent of all Costa Rica's species
of flora and fauna, including species that have all
but disappeared in neighboring countries.
The National Parks Foundation has
the following mission and objective. To improve the
services provided to the visitors in each national
parks. Also, the foundation also wants to find and
include new areas into the protection status.
Also, the foundation has a mission to train the park
guards and staff, to provide a economic structure
so that each park can be auto - sufficient and to
improve and develop the service facilities at the
parks for the visitors
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