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| Long live the Protected Areas of Costa Rica! |
Costa Rica in August 2025 - Preamble
Over the last four decades, Costa Rica has earned a reputation as a leader in biodiversity-based tourism and, more broadly, as a leader in a culture of environmental awareness. As students of conservation we are interested in studying this.
In 2021 we used our Costa Rican research experience to published a paper on the landscape quality as assessed by a field survey protocol and index we have developed. Please see this:
In August 2025 we went back to study more and to take a much needed vacation, also visiting our good friends there.
These are some environmental notes we record from this trip:
Landscape change due to tourism/real esteate development.
On the coasts, at the most wonderful landscapes, often near protected areas... 'progress' often means real estate development. We saw this near Cahuita and Puerto Viejo de Talamanca on the Caribbean and near Jaco, Punta Uvita and elsewhere on the Pacific coast. Many thousands of old trees recently toppled, land-cleared, woodlots vanishing, new roads bulldozed; land ready for building. What is not in protected areas is ready to sell-off. In such places a "build-baby-build" mentality seems to be growing. The changes are apparent in the last few years. Ok its not easy to see all the buildings among the greenery; the natural regrowth happening everywhere easily covers the many villas and subdivisions spreading. And fortunately, this sprawl is still localized, but things seem to be changing fast in many places. We even saw a new multi-storied building on a hill top "polluting" the visual landscape on the road from Jaco to Tarcoles (this building punctures the horizon for many kms away). Scattered buildings is a real problem, definately a trend.
As we mentioned in our 2021 paper, much of this rapid building-up for tourism/real estate is 'screened-off' by vegetation re-growth and is not as apparant at the visual landscape scale (as say, in the drier areas such as Southern California or Greece).
Inadequate protection of the wider landscape outside protected/corridor areas.
Of course its so hard to do. And no nation really commands full control of the wider landscape, the problem is endemic in such beatiful countries, e.g. here in Greece. There are many many exceptional initiatives (corridors etc) in CR and these have saved so much natural land. However, the brutal truth is that what is outside of protected areas is often the most threatened part of the landscape. And that means, there is much is at stake. CR is very small, so saving just 25% of the land in PRs is not enough. Coto Brus (southwest CR) was especially interesting for me; rapid landscape change has taken place very recnetly (since the early '60s) and La Amistad Protected Area creates a strait-line park-ranch country boundary. It is stark! Cattle may be again increasing, that means more degraded steep-sloping grassland, bigger grassland patches - often on very steep eroding slopes (we witnessed this and the experts we talked to agree on this). Erosion and tree-cutting continues. "Newly domesticated landscapes" is the phrase here.We saw a lot of this on our wider wonderings in this region during a six day stay at Coto Brus.
Potential poaching problem.
We saw very very few large mammals. We saw deer only once (and that case only near some rice fields (near Parita). Howler monkeys are scarce or absent in some areas (i.e., San Vito in Coto Brus) and no signs of much else, even in tracks. We saw few road kills. So I think (and I have been told) it must be poaching.
Possible decline of tourists during green season '25.
Tourist numbers have fallen in CR for various reasons (in the last two years). We visited in the rainy season, but in contrast to other times, we felt rather alone. This may cause problems with incentives for park protection or espeically protection of the wider landscape based on the tourism incentives.
Forest regrowth.
Trees grow fast in the moist tropics of CR. I could not believe what I learned and saw at Coto Brus, at my friend's initiative on their land. Trees planted just 2 decades ago were soaring high and full of birds. This is a fascinating thing and could work wonders if organized well. I am sure there are pleanty of regeneration initiatives. But saving old trees and old tree stands should still be the priority. Saving old wood lots even in rapidly expanding tourist areas such as the Caribbean is key. Note that unlike the Mediterranean and the drier areas of North America and Mexico, most biodiversity here is in-forest. The overwhelming biodiversity is related to old forest. Find it and you will see the wonders.
Positive attitudes.
Ticos are wonderful poeple and we met plenty of them again on this trip. Genuine hospitality, good discussions, trust, care, nature-appreciation almost everywhere. Its true what they say: A place is only as good as the people in it!
Other General points: Costa Rica has problems with enforcement gaps, greenwashing and other difficultines related to genuine action for protecting landscapes and some coastal areas in particular are seriously threatened. On paper: there is a strong environmental framework. About 60% of land cover is forest, and 25% of land is protected; trees have come back. In practice: Enforcement is weak in tourist regions (coastal areas) and outside protected areas (even just outside the borders of many parks). Developers burn land illegally, expand into agricultural and natural areas, and tourism markets projects as “eco-villages” or “green luxury estates”. On a localized scale, tourism is destroying biodiversity and landscape values, places are becoming uglier. NGOs call this “eco-luxury greenwashing”.
Costa Rica’s global reputation as an eco-paradise makes it vulnerable to greenwashing — investors assume “if it’s in Costa Rica, it must be sustainable.” Despite Costa Rica's remarkable success with protected areas, forestland come-back and a general wider sentiment for protecting and promoting biodiversity, much more needs to be done! The story is complex and requires careful initiatives.
Some take-aways from our third trip to Costa Rica - and a promotion: YOU should visit CR!
Our vacation was an 18-day trip, birding and relaxing time, also visiting with friends there. Slow briding and near-constant eBird listing was the method of the day (see results below).
I highly encourage naturalists to visit CR. I believe the visits and communication with the locals about their biodiversity does good. CR is geared into promoting biodiversity. (One could imagine that this is analogous with Greece's efforts and committments to protect, restore and organize Archeological Sites). There is no doubt in my mind that in CR we are seeing a lot of genuine conservation on the ground and a lot of really wonderful effort by institutions and local people (including private ventures, both NGOs, small community groups and the tourism industry as well). So it is a good system, despite the flaws, the shortcommings, the 'wider landscape issue' (i.e. saving areas outside of protected areas), etc.
So I urge you to go.
Some maybe helpful things to remember if you plan to visit Costa Rica.
Plan for rain every day. Sometimes it’s just showers for a couple of hours, sometimes it’s cataclysmic. I got into the local habit of wearing botas (short wellies, lightweight). Bonus: they may help if you get too close to a snake (I once had a nighttime Fer-de-lance encounter!).
Stay inland for the best birding conditions: While we spent time on both the Caribbean and Pacific coasts, I especially loved the mid- to high-altitude zones (above ~700 m). The climate there is clearer, mornings are gorgeous, and you can bird comfortably all day. On the lowlands, after 9:00 am it gets torrid—though Puerto Viejo de Talamanca is saved by a refreshing sea breeze. On the Pacific side, I also discovered my favorite beach: Playa Piñuela (near Uvita).
Hire a trained nature guide. At La Selva (where a guide is mandatory), I did an early morning/two-hour dawn walk in pouring rain...Fashlight, laser pointer, scope, all in action. It was fantastic and made a huge difference in finding my bird targets.
Book a good hotel for arrival and departure. After ~15 hours of flights from SE Europe, we really needed rest and also wanted immediate and...last-minute birding. The Xandari Hotel (above Alajuela) is perfect for naturalists.
Expensive? Yes compared to other contries in Central America. Can it be done on the cheap? Yes, I think so and especially in the green season (Northern Hemisphere Summer). You need to plan more and get the info and make careful decisions. Its very possible. For birding, I would go with others, not alone. For transport, bargain hard at the local rent-a-car dealers. We paid 58 dollars per day with good insurance coverage (this is extremely cheap for North America). I highly recommend Vamos as a good rent-a-car agency. (And yes I did receive a rebate because I am a frequent costumer).
Drive less. Roads in Costa Rica are narrow, traffic is worse than expected, and rain/flooding makes things trickier. We tried to minimize driving but still ended up doing ~1500 km (plus some extra with friends). We also saw a few bad accidents. If possible, plan to cover less ground.
And now some maps of our 2024 nature travel in Costa Rica:
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| Our 18-day sojourn in CR in late July and August of 2025. Encircled are the areas we stayed in and the dates. We briefly entered Panama at Lago Rio Sereno. |
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| My eBird recording results from our 2025 trip. Note that ours was a 'slow birding' experience among other interests. Details from our Trip Report as systematized by the eBird platform. See: https://ebird.org/tripreport/400741 |
My Costa Rica bird list now stands at 301 species...I feel quirky, finally one happy world birder!
In 2025 I contributed 68 checklists to eBird on this trip and tallied 217 species (also many photographed with a cheap super-zoom camera-see below). You should know that filming and photography in dark wet rainforest conditions is tricky to say the least. However, using the video option can help ID the birds back at the hotel room....Also, at least 4 spp were varified by good-willing local birder friends of mine from Costa Rica - from video screen shots and photos.
And now some snap-shots follow (all photos in this post by S. Zogaris and V. Vlami):
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| Puerto Viejo de Talamanca on the Caribbean. |
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| Wild ones, near a grocery stall (man feeds them lettuce and fruits), PV de Talamanca. |
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| The beach from our favorite hotel at Punta Cocles on the Caribbean. |
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| El Gato is the Birding Professor of Costa Rica. Happy to visit him at Casa Dowii in the Talamancas. He showed us a couple of lifer birds here. |
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| Of course I asked if the San Joachin Wetland in San Vito is protected...answer: Of course it is protected! It is charished and delinated. Locals were so nice to let us in their property, also partly planted with respect for nature. A really good feeling in San Vito. |
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| Tour of the Coffea Diversa near of the Buenos Aires canton. |
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| Entomological exhibit at San Vito. |
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| I really want to thank Greg and Helena Homer of the San Vito Bird Club for showing us such a wonderful day and discussing conservation and so many wonderful things with us. Wonderful gringos like these make the difference! |
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| La Amistad International Park, it rained all day! |
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| This beach near Uvita is of course in a word-class protected area. However the lands around the park are being built-up. Its pictures like this that bring a lot of us to Costa Rica. The amazing thing is the totally different world of the Pacific. It is especially beatiful here. |
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| A very accessible and wonderfull forest park is Carara. ...But it is a furnace near midday, worth it! |
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| This is the Xandari Hotel just north of Alajuela on the foothills of Poas Vocano, and partially overlooking the outskirts of San Jose. It is only 20 mins from the Airport and is very birdy. I highly recommend this place for first and last day stays before flying away. |
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| My results at Carara! Merlin Bird ID app on the Left. I used Merlin a lot for searching out the bird sounds (but rarely for playback). On several occasions the App gave wrong sound identification suggestions (even giving me House Fince and American Robin suggestions in the Talamancas...). Be careful. |
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| Finally, some instruction on the value of digital super-zoom cameras for birding in the tropics. I do not prioritize photography. I use binocs. But I also use a Canon PowerShot SX70 HS Digital Camera like this one. This is what I call a ''cheep super-zoom digital''. It costs about EUR 800 and is very light and small. It not for professional photography but I prefer to have this along with a good pair o binocs/scope than labour with a bigger camera, special expensive lenses etc. Highly recommended. |
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| Its different being there. The picture is just a small part. Our photo of wild birds using the above camera from Trarcoles Birding Lodge. |
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