Fish News EU - The governments of Honduras and Costa Rica have today proposed protections for scalloped hammerhead sharks under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). According to the Pew Environment Group, who have praised the initiative, CITES is widely considered one of the best-enforced international conservation agreements. [...]
Costa Rica, known for its biodiversity, national parks, and thriving eco-tourism, has a severe municipal solid waste management (MSWM) problem that threatens the health of local communities, destroying a fragile ecosystem whose well-being is of critical to those who live and visit there, as well as to the planet. Starting in 2009 when I visited [...]
A total of 80 beaches from all over the country received the ecological blue flag award during the 16th ceremony of the Ecological Blue Flag Program (PBAE), which took place last March 28th at the Double Tree Hotel in Puntarenas. For the first time, the Costa Rican Institute of Tourism (ICT) decided to hold an [...]
Just off the coast of Costa Rica’s picturesque Caribbean sea and nestled in the Cahuita National Park lies an animal sanctuary dedicated to protecting the much-maligned sloth. The site is a popular attraction for swarms of tourists keen to catch a glimpse of the curious-looking mammals. Volunteers at the refuge work around the clock to [...]
This critter was ready for its closeup! A sloth with impeccable timing poked its head directly in front of a camera lens as the device snapped an image, creating what may be the world’s cutest “photobomb.” “Photobomb” is the word used to describe a photograph in which someone – or something – unexpectedly jumps into [...]
Biofuels is on the rise… again. The first time some painful lessons were learned for fast-in investors. This time the focus is on second generation biofuels and Central America. First generation: Why so bad? Some of it´s obvious and has been covered before: using petroleum-based fertilizer to grow corn, which is sprayed with petroleum-based pesticides [...]
Among tropical rainforest countries, Costa Rica has one of the most ambitious turtle conservation programs, but there is always a shortage of volunteers to assist in the fight against turtle egg poaching. BikeHike Adventures (www.bikehike.com) offers eco-conscious travellers a chance to help researchers gather and relocate endangered turtle eggs to protect them. April and May [...]
There’s an upside-down world in a sleepy corner of Costa Rica, Central America, where laziness is a virtue, not a sin: a sanctuary – the only one in the world – devoted to saving orphaned and injured sloths. For the past year I’ve been making a documentary about the residents of this idle idyll for Animal Planet. But far from being a somnolent sort of [...]
An exciting challenge awaiting all Costa Rican visitors and transplants is learning the names of the flora and fauna of their adopted country. The difference between kinkajous and olingos, antbirds and antthrushes, lowland and highland life zones – Costa Rica is a country with an inexhaustible supply of interesting natural history for the eager student. [...]
Costa Rica – (AP) — The simulated rainforest at Miller Park Zoo is fun to visit, but nothing beats the real thing. Once every two years, zoo education specialist Shannon Reedy leads about a dozen high-school-aged members of the wildly popular junior zookeeper program to the rainforest of Costa Rica. The latest group visited the [...]
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