Un Nuevo Modelo de Áreas de Conservación Regionales
One of my key reforms as Minister of Environment was reorganizing Costa Rica’s national park system and the forestry directorate into regional conservation areas.
Inspired by UNESCO’s biosphere reserves, this model has a core area of absolute protection, like national parks and biological reserves, owned by the state. Surrounding these core areas are buffer zones, mostly forest reserves that are privately owned. We combined the staff from the national park system and forestry directorate into this new system of 7 regional conservation areas, which still exists today and has been expanded to 11 areas.
