An impressive region of 190,000 hectares of land and water make up the Conservation Area located in the province of Guanacaste. A few kilometers from the Nicaraguan border, in the North Pacific, this land protects around 230,000 species of flora and fauna approximately 65% of all species in Costa Rica.
Guanacaste's Conservation Area shelters Santa Rosa, Guanacaste and Rincon de la Vieja National Parks, as well as Experimental Forest Station Horizontes and Bahia Junquillal Wild Life Reserve, along with a number of properties purchased in order to create a solid block of biodiversity.
Dry and Wet
The area's congregation represents a great diversity of ecosystems, including the wet forest and the driest, oldest zones in Costa Rica, represented mainly by Santa Elena Peninsula, which is more than 80 million years old, and it has an annual rainfall of 900 milliliters.
Additionally, here we can find the cloud forest with the lowest height in Costa Rica (1,500 meters above sea level); dry forest in different regeneration stages, swamps, and a rich, diverse sea-coastal zone. Some historical-cultural features that are nationally important stand out, too, including Santa Rosa Casona Historic Museum and important archaeological sites, such as the Petroglyphs at Pedregal Site, on the foot of Orosí Volcano.
Temperatures and rainfall vary; for example, in the driest area annual rainfall is around 2,000 mm, while in the wettest zone it is around 3,500 mm, annually.
Flora and fauna are also very diverse, due to the already mentioned factors, which makes this area very scientifically interesting. Important hydrographical basins are protected, such as Tempisque River Basin and Sapoa River Basin.
Among the different coastal environments in the area, there are swamp forests, sandy beaches, and rocky islets and reefs, which work as environments for protection and reproduction of important marine species. Playa Nancite, a massive Olive Ridley Sea Turtle nesting beach, is located on the coast, where thousands of turtles come to lay eggs during the second half of the year. Forest fires, hunting, wood extraction, and other disturbances have been considerably reduced. Eighty percent of the area, which for 4 centuries has been damaged by man, is gradually regenerating and turning into forest.
Total Protection
In order for you and future generations to enjoy the natural wealth of Guanacaste Conservation Area, the Ministry of Environment and Energy is carrying out different environmental protection programs, including:
• Zero Fires: the goal is to completely eliminate fires within the conservation area so that vegetation and fauna can take up their corresponding area.
• Nature Protection: makes sure conservation laws are fulfilled, reinforcing prevention rather than police intervention.
• Teaching Our Kids: a biological literacy teaching program for children between fourth and sixth grades at 14 nearby schools.
• Land of Scientists: includes everything related to scientific research. Guanacaste Conservation Area has room for 172 researchers in its five science stations.
Ecotourism Program: their aim is to make each visit both enjoyable and educational.
• For tree lovers: degraded environments restoration in order to accelerate and enrich natural processes, and forest recovery. Research on dynamics and composition of forests and generation of basic silvicultural information about logable species in the Dry Pacific.
