Santa Rosa National Park | |
---|---|
Parque Nacional Santa Rosa | |
![]() | |
![]() Santa Rosa National Park area. | |
Location | Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica |
Nearest city | La Cruz |
Coordinates | 10°53′01″N85°46′30″W / 10.88361°N 85.77500°W Coordinates: 10°53′01″N85°46′30″W / 10.88361°N 85.77500°W |
Area | 389.71 km2 (150.47 sq mi) (terrestrial) 425.60 km2 (164.33 sq mi) (marine) |
Established | 1 July 1966 |
Governing body | National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC) |
Official name | Laguna Respringue |
Designated | 6 May 1999 |
Reference no. | 982 [1] |
Official name | Manglar de Potrero Grande |
Designated | 6 May 1999 |
Reference no. | 981 [2] |
Santa Rosa National Park (Spanish : Parque Nacional Santa Rosa), is a national park, in Guanacaste Province, northwestern Costa Rica, it was created in 1966 by decree 3694. [3] [4]
The main entrance of Santa Rosa National Park is 36 kilometres (22 mi) north of Liberia on Route 1, in northern Guanacaste Province. The park covers an area of approximately 495 square kilometres (191 sq mi).
It is part of the Area de Conservación Guanacaste World Heritage Site, originally created to protect the scene of the Battle of Santa Rosa. It is also within the larger national Guanacaste Conservation Area.
The Route 1 (North Interamerican Highway segment within Costa Rica of the Pan-American Highway) is along its eastern edge, where the adjacent Guanacaste National Park is located.
Route 913 is completely within the park.
Santa Rosa was originally a farm located in the north-western Guanacaste Province, in Costa Rica. Today an old hacienda building, "La Casona," functions as the monument commemorating the fallen heroes of the different battles that took place here.
Primarily, Costa Rica remembers the Battle of Santa Rosa won by their army over the forces of filibuster William Walker. On March 20, 1856, when the Costa Rican forces reached this point, the filibusters were housed in the main farm building, La Casona. The ensuing battle lasted all of 14 minutes with the national militia victorious in ousting the invaders.
The farm however kept for years its strategic significance. This place was the location of two more battles of Costa Rican forces against invading forces from Nicaragua. In 1919, there was an attempt from the invaders to overthrow the dictatorship of General Federico Tinoco Granados; and in the 1955, Costa Ricans fought intruders supporting a coup attempt against the government of José Figueres. [5]
Santa Rosa National Park was also created to protect the natural environment beyond the historical site.
Ten unique natural habitats are within in the park. They include savannas, deciduous forest, marshlands, and mangrove woodlands.
Areas of the Isthmian–Pacific moist forests ecoregion, similar to the Isthmian–Atlantic moist forests ecoregion and both of the tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests biome; and Moist Pacific Coast mangroves ecoregions similar to the Mosquitia–Nicaraguan Caribbean Coast mangroves ecoregion and both of the mangrove biome; and Central American dry forests biome habitats — are protected here.
Fauna includes coyotes, peccaries, white-nosed coatis, Baird's tapirs, sea turtles, and terrestrial turtles. The three species of monkey are Geoffroy's spider monkey, mantled howler and Panamanian white-faced capuchin.
Several cat species are also present: jaguarundi, ocelot, cougar and jaguar. They are rarely seen.
Around 250 bird species and 115 mammal species are found within the park. [ citation needed ]
Two Ramsar sites are located within the park, Laguna Respringue and Manglar de Potrero Grande. [1] [2]
Guanacaste is a province of Costa Rica located in the northwestern region of the country, along the coast of the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Alajuela Province to the east, and Puntarenas Province to the southeast. It is the most sparsely populated of all the provinces of Costa Rica. The province covers an area of 10,141 square kilometres (3,915 sq mi) and as of 2010, had a population of 354,154, with annual revenue of $2 million.
Daniel Hunt Janzen is an American evolutionary ecologist, and conservationist. He divides his time between his professorship in biology at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is the DiMaura Professor of Conservation Biology, and his research and field work in Costa Rica.
Guanacaste National Park, in Spanish Parque Nacional Guanacaste is a National Park in the northern part of Costa Rica. It is part of the Area de Conservación Guanacaste World Heritage Site, and it stretches from the slopes of the Orosí and Cacao volcanoes west to the Interamerican Highway where it is adjacent to the Santa Rosa National Park. It was created in 1989, partially due to the campaigning and fund-raising of Dr. Daniel Janzen to allow a corridor between the dry forest and rain forest areas which many species migrate between seasonally. The park covers an area of approximately 340 square kilometers, and includes 140 species of mammals, over 300 birds, 100 amphibians and reptiles, and over 10,000 species of insects that have been identified. It was this high density of bio-diversity that encouraged the Costa Rican government to protect this area. The Guanacaste National Park weaves the neighboring Santa Rosa National Park with the high altitude forests of the two volcanoes, Orosi and Cacao, and the rainforest of the Caribbean in the country's north.
The Area de Conservación Guanacaste is a network of protected areas and a World Heritage Site in Guanacaste Province, in northwestern Costa Rica. The World Heritage Site contains an unbroken tract of tropical dry forest and important habitat for several vulnerable species, including the Central American tapir, mangrove hummingbird, and the great green macaw. Over 7,000 plant species and 900 vertebrate species have been located in the park.
Las Baulas de Guanacaste Marine National Park is a National Park of Costa Rica and a Ramsar Site. The park is managed by the Tempisque Conservation Area, and covers approximately a 167.3 square kilometres (64.6 sq mi) marine area of the Tamarindo Bay, next to the town of Tamarindo. It supports the largest nesting colony of leatherback sea turtles on the Pacific coast of the Americas. Female leatherbacks often come ashore at Playa Grande between October and May to lay their eggs.
Guanacaste Conservation Area is an administrative area which is managed by the Sistema Nacional de Areas de Conservacion (SINAC) of Costa Rica for conservation in the northwestern part of Costa Rica. It contains three national parks, as well as wildlife refuges and other nature reserves. The area contains the Area de Conservación Guanacaste World Heritage Site, which comprises four areas.
Iguanita Wildlife Refuge is a wildlife refuge, part of the Guanacaste Conservation Area. It is in Guanacaste Province, which is in northwestern Costa Rica.
Chirripó National Park is a national park of Costa Rica, encompassing parts of three provinces: San José, Limón and Cartago. It was established in 1975.
The Talamancan montane forests ecoregion, in the tropical moist broadleaf forest biome, are in montane Costa Rica and western Panama in Central America.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Costa Rica:
The Isthmian–Atlantic moist forests (NT0129) are a Central American tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion located on the lowland slopes on the caribbean sea side of Nicaragua and Costa Rica and the Gulf and Pacific Ocean sides of Panama. The forest species are a mix of North American and South American, as this region only became a land bridge in the past 3 million years.
Tortuguero National Park is a national park in the Limón Province of Costa Rica. It is situated within the Tortuguero Conservation Area of the northeastern part of the country. Despite its remote location, reachable only by airplane or boat, it is the third-most visited park in Costa Rica. The park has a large variety of biological diversity due to the existence within the reserve of eleven different habitats, including rainforest, mangrove forests, swamps, beaches, and lagoons. Located in a tropical climate, it is very humid, and receives up to 250 inches (6,400 mm) of rain a year.
The Central American dry forests ecoregion, of the tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests biome, is located in Central America.
The Costa Rican seasonal moist forests ecoregion covers the Pacific Slope of the volcanic mountain range of northwestern Costa Rica and the extreme south of Nicaragua. The area has a distinct dry season during which the characteristic deciduous trees drop their leaves. The forests themselves have been highly degraded in the past by human conversion to agriculture and settlement. The Costa Rican capital city of San Jose is in the middle of this ecoregion.
The Mesoamerican Gulf-Caribbean mangroves ecoregion covers the series of disconnected mangrove habitats along the eastern coast of Central America. These salt-water wetlands are found in river deltas, lagoons, and low-lying areas facing the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, from Tampico, Mexico to central Panama. The mangroves are areas of high biodiversity and endemism. Many of the sites are protected as national parks or nature reserves.
The Bocas del Toro-San Bastimentos Island-San Blas mangroves ecoregion covers the mangrove habitats along the Caribbean Sea coast of Costa Rica and across the northern coast of Panama. An offshore reef and barrier islands of the region help protect the mangroves from destructive waves. The ecoregion has a high number of endangered and threatened species, including the loggerhead sea turtle, green sea turtle, and hawk's bill sea turtle.
The Moist Pacific Coast mangroves ecoregion covers a series of disconnected mangrove sites along the Pacific Ocean coast of Costa Rica and Panama. These sites occur mostly on coastal flatlands around lagoons, particularly where rivers from the inland mountains reach the sea, bringing fresh water to the coastal forests. The area is in a transition zone from the drier coastline to the north; rainfall in this ecoregions is over 2,000 mm/year, and reaches over 3,600 mm/year at the southern end.
Reforestation efforts are being made in Costa Rica to recondition its biodiversity and ecosystems that were affected by heavy deforestation in the 1900s.