Costa Rica Ecology & Environment

Costa Rica’s Life Zones

Costa Rica Ecology and EnvironmentCosta Rica has 12 different topical life zones. Each of Costa Rica’s tropical life zones is named according to the type of forest and its altitude. Given this classification scheme, there are dry, moist, wet, and rain forests in tropical, premontane, lower montane, montane, and subalpine areas.

Furthermore, many different types of habitat may occur within one tropical life zone. Thus, Costa Rica’s huge variety of habitats contains unique groupings of plants and animals, nearly all of which is protected by Costa Rica’s extensive national park system.

Environmental Issues

Costa Rica faces a major problem with deforestation, despite the country’s strong stance on conservational practices. Although Costa Rica’s natural vegetation was, in it’s natural state, nearly all forest, much of this original forest has been cleared to make way for agriculture and pasture usage. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Costa Rica’s forests were lost at an average rate of 2.3% each year during the time frame spanning 1973 and 1989. Although this situation has improved over the last decade, deforestation continues at a high rate and there is very little in the way of Costa Rican forests outside of it’s environmentally protected areas.

In addition to the loss of habitat and the life that depends on it, deforestation has cause a number of other problems, including soil erosion. Since, forests protect the soil beneath them from the ravages of topical rainstorms, deforestation results in the washing away of much of the topsoil that is important to not only the environment but also the agriculture that Costa Rica depends on.

Other environmental issues faced by Costa Rica include water pollution (rivers), fisheries protection and solid waste management.