WWF Travel Blog

Green Iguana in Talamanca, Costa Rica © Michèle Dépraz / WWF-Canon

Large-scale demand for agricultural land and the need for timber have led to drastic soil erosion and deforestation in Costa Rica. WWF works with local organizations to safeguard the country’s natural riches. Among its success stories:

Camera traps
WWF researchers have set up camera traps—simple cameras with infrared sensors that take a picture whenever they sense movement in the forest—deep in Costa Rican rain forests. Footage caught by the cameras of rare and endangered animals in their natural habitat helps researchers make important decisions about conservation.

Conserving forests
WWF helps support Corcovado National Park, which encompasses the only remaining old-growth wet forest on the Pacific coast of Central America. WWF also financially helps protect the Monteverde Cloud Forest and co-developed a biological evaluation of the Talamancan ecoregion to identify areas for protection as well as to meet community needs.

Saving sea turtles
In 2004, WWF’s office in Central America started a project with the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission to save marine turtles from long-line fisheries bycatch in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. The project relied on the use of circle hooks, which reduce the capture of sea turtles by 70 percent to 90 percent but do not affect the catch of commercial species. Circle hooks are much less likely to be swallowed by turtles than traditional J-shaped hooks, which cause suffocation or internal bleeding when swallowed.  In addition to asking fishermen to voluntarily switch from traditional J hooks, WWF helps train them in best fishing practices. This includes how to properly handle and resuscitate an accidentally caught turtle.

The project has proved successful in building up a network of support. The challenge now is to achieve a massive transformation to circle hooks and better fishing practices in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.

Visit Costa Rica with WWF:

• Costa Rica for Families tour, December 26, 2010-January 2, 2011

• Costa Rica and Panama cruise, February 12-19, 2011