All Entries in the "Conservation" Category

Costa Rica Jaguars get a Protected Migration Pathway

Animal conservation groups are working to create natural corridors for big cats to travel through human-populated areas.

One such corridor is already in-place to help Costa Rica’s jaguars survive, but development is a constant threat to even established pathways.

Senior Citizen Travel to Costa Rica

Just Mention Costa Rica and people think paradise.

With tropical rainforests, live volcanoes, long beaches with perfect surf, and each part of the country having its own unique micro-climate … Costa Rica’s beauty is staggering and the sluggish pace seductive.

Senior tourists are visiting Costa Rica in droves to enjoy once-in-a-lifetime experiences.

University Science Students Explore the Underwater World of Costa Rica

University students and scientists from institutions around the world, spent seven days off the coast of Costa Rica on a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded expedition.

The team used a deep-sea manned submersible owned by the U.S. Navy called ALVIN to collect hundreds of samples from the ocean floor.

The Last Jaguars of Costa Rica

For nearly 20-years Dr. Eduardo Carrillo has been tracking, filming and gathering data on the near threatened jaguar population of Costa Rica.

Carrillo explains that the forests of Latin America are the symbolic heart of this region, and the health of the jaguar population is a key indicator of just how healthy the forests are.

8 Things Costa Rica Taught Me During My Visit

World Wildlife Fund’s Elissa Poma accompanied the WWF on their most recent 2009/2010 Costa Rica for Families EcoTour.

Here are 8 things Elissa learned about Costa Rica during her visit.

Costa Rica’s 10 Most Unique Hotels

Costa Rica is a place where competition for travelers’ dollars is intense and hotel property owners work hard to be different.

How does a “Hobbit Hotel” or secluded resort of geodesic-dome “jungalows” sound? Here are some of the ‘most unique’ hotels from all corners of Costa Rica.

Is Costa Rica a Third World, Second World or Developed Country?

There is a multi-million-dollar mega-mall in Escazú, west of San José, which sports outlets of some of the world’s most exclusive stores. But, according to the State of the Nation report in November, at least 16,000 Costa Rican homes are “without basic services,” such as electricity and running water.

A constant feature of this disparity in the makeup of Costa Rica is that, while certain areas of the country are surging ahead, there are many areas in which the country is not keeping up or is, indeed, falling behind.

El Niño and Pathogen Killed Costa Rica Toad – Not Global Warming

The Monteverde golden toad, vanished from Costa Rica’s Pacific coastal-mountain cloud forest in the late 1980s. The role that climate change played in the toad’s demise has been fiercely debated in recent years.

According to a new study, global warming did not kill a Costa Rica amphibian often cited as an example of climate-triggered extinction.

Costa Rica’s “La Gloria” Guanacaste Wind Farm Now Online

Costa Rica in its quest to be the first carbon neutral country on Earth has reached new heights toward its goal with the completion of the Proyecto Eólico Guanacaste or “La Gloria” electric generating wind farm. 55 wind turbines located at a spectacular site near the Miravalle Volcano (Volcán Miravalle) in Cordillera de Guanacaste, in [...]

The Ancient and Mysterious Stone Spheres of Costa Rica

In the 1930′s, the United Fruit Company (now Chiquita Brands International) was excavating the fertile, yet remote, farmlands of Costa Rica, near the Diquis Valley on the Pacific Ocean coast. United Fruit is the major importer of bananas and they became interested in this region of Costa Rica because of a blight that had killed [...]

Boosting Biodiversity and the Global Economy by Saving a Species

“Forty-nine”, a researcher whispers. After counting the slimy, round white eggs just laid by a rare leatherback turtle in a hole dug in the sand under bright moonlight on Playa Grande beach in Costa Rica; researcher Tera Dornfeld marks the site of the eggs after the female turtle has filled in the hole with her [...]

Spring Break Costa Rica – the Hemesphere’s Best Kept Secret

Spring break is greatly anticipated by most college students being as it indicates the end of winter, the opportunity to put down the books, take a break from studying and of course; do a little partying. Students look forward to a change of scenery and day dream about places like Cancun and some of the [...]

Costa Rica Remains an Environmental Index Leader as U.S. Falls

A new ranking of the world’s nations by environmental performance puts some of the globe’s largest economies far down the list, with the United States sinking to 61st and China to 121st. In the 2008 version of the Environmental Performance Index, compiled every two years by a consortium between Yale University and Columbia University researchers; [...]

Rutgers GREEN Team Students Studied Renewable Energy in Costa Rica

The dreams of Rutgers University‘s Global Renewable Energy Education Network Team (GREEN Team) transformed into reality over winter break when their renewable energy program in Costa Rica launched its pilot session. Students landed at the San Jose airport on January 5, 2010 and spent 12 days learning and applying renewable energy ideas, enjoying the environment [...]

Last-Ditch Leftwing Alliance to ‘Save’ Costa Rica from a Conservative Presidency

Political forces on the left in Costa Rica have formed a partial last-minute alliance to support Ottón Solís, the presidential candidate for the center-left Citizen’s Action Party (PAC, Partido Acción Ciudadana), in a bid to counter the conservative lead that the polls predict for the upcoming Feb. 7, 2010 national presidential election. The governing National [...]

A Tale of Three Different Caribbean Countries

One of the happiest countries on the planet shows that protecting biodiversity has a lot to do with wellbeing HAPPINESS IS a state of mind, but if it were a place, it might well be the central American republic of Costa Rica. Located just a few hundred miles west of the benighted Haiti, Costa Rica [...]

EARTH University – Carbon Neutral, Sustainable and Bananas Over Paper

EARTH University in Costa Rica opened in 1990 as a private, non-profit international institution dedicated to education, research and the generation of value through production, transformation and commercialization activities centered around agricultural sciences and the rational management of natural resources. Officially named Universidad E.A.R.T.H. (Escuela de Agricultura de la Region Tropical Humeda), EARTH University’s 990 [...]

Thriving Sex Industry Bumps Costa Rica from List of Most Ethical Destinations

When travel magazines and sites come out with top ten “eco” lists they’re usually the top ten places who did a good job marketing themselves as green. Okay, maybe that’s too harsh. They are usually places that are actually doing things responsibly because no editor wants to get a stack of hate mail or a [...]

Costa Rica’s President: It’s Not Easy Being Green

From the ubiquitous T-shirts sporting a red-eyed tree frog clinging to an Imperial beer bottle, to the best-selling postcards featuring the flamboyant poison-dart frog holding court in the rainforest, Costa Ricans today identify with frogs the way Russians relate to bears. That’s because Costa Rica over the past generation has built a reputation as one [...]

Exploring Costa Rica’s Bat Jungle in Monteverde

Costa Rica is home to 109 species of bats, which number fully half the mammal species in the country. You’re sure to come across them during a visit. By day, certain species are easy to spot snoozing by clinging like vines to tree trunks. Another species gathers huge banana leaves together and weaves them into [...]