Finding the entrance to Manuel Antonio National Park in Costa Rica was more difficult than I ever imagined. There were lots of signs, pointing in all different directions in the adjacent town, but chances are none of these were official signs. All the signs seem to lead to private parking lots that charged you for parking and then swarmed you with entrepreneurial nature guides offering their services for money. Thanks to the guide we got talked into hiring (well worth it though!), we found the entrance to the park. It was past a rather nondescript, ugly building, that served as a ticket booth, with an emotionless attendant taking your $10 to get in. I never would of believed it was the entrance if our guide hadn’t insisted it was.
Three Toed Sloth
Once in to the park, the trails within the park were well maintained but unmarked. Perhaps they’re intentionally confusing to help promote the hiring of local guides, but probably not. Signage just isn’t a priority in Costa Rica. None of the roads are marked, so why mark the trails? The sign in the picture was actually the first signed I encountered letting us know we’re in the park but its probably 2-3 km down the trail!
The trails themselves only cover roughly 5% of the park. Unlike U.S. parks that were created by then President Wilson for “the enjoyment of future generations”, the first mission of Costa Rica National Parks is to benefit the environment and wildlife. While both national park systems try to achieve both goals, the prioritization drives some distinct differences such as leaving the vast majority of Costa Rica’s parks as pure wilderness.
The interior of the Costa Rica parks maybe closer to pure wilderness, but their challenge is with the edges. The way to Manuel Antonio National Park was lined with hotels, little restaurants, and touristy stands. You couldn’t quite tell where the town ended and the park began. Which is a key challenge for Costa Rica and other developing countries. The threats with squatters, poachers, and tree cutters abound. The four story hotel and disco boarding the park was an abomination, but reminded me of some of the battles we had in the US on flights over the Grand Canyon and the IMAX theater that was proposed at the edge of Zion National Park. Why go into the park when you can just watch a movie about it or fly over it in an air conditioned helicopter?
Bats on Tree in Manuel Antonio National Park
By comparison, US Parks are sanitary and safe. We have beautiful ranger stations with larger accommodating parking lots complete with movies and friendly rangers. The entrance to Manuel Antonio only had a rather filthy public bathroom off to the side of the entrance. The roads within our parks (yes, our parks have roads!) are well maintained and well marked with signs literally everywhere. Our parks may be better maintained for our enjoyment, but not as pristine. With only 5% of a park with trails it leaves quite a bit of room left for wildlife to be left alone. Alas, however, Costa Rica has the same challenges as we do with our remaining wild lands. Their mega-fauna (tapris and jaguars) need even more room to roam and thrive and the migratory animals such as the Macaws and Quetzals often need to travel seasonally beyond the park boundaries for food. Patterns of following their natural food sources up and down the mountains as blooming times progress through the elevations are disrupted or blocked by farming. The main road to Manuel Antonio requires you to drive through 10-15 miles of a single Palm Oil Plantation. It goes forever through flat lands that were once probably a mixture of a mangrove swamp and lowland forest. Now, the single monoculture is a virtual biological desert. Undoubtedly a boon to the local economy but a significant blow the the Green Macaws who used to migrate down the mountains for food.
The challenge is with the edges. We humans push on the edges and the natural residents of the park don’t even know the boundries exist. In the future, our goal may be less to protect and secure the boundaries, but rather make the boundries indistinct and blurred. Buffered lands with conservation easements and wildlife corridors not only would provide migratory pathways, but also alternatives for use humans who look to the park for at times illicit game, tree cutting, and and in the case of Costa Rica, Hearts of Palm. This, of course, means more land set aside for preservation which is one thing that Costa Rica got right. 27% of their country is set aside in their National Park system. Over one quarter of the country has been designated for preservation. Now that’s a commitment!
The goals of enjoying a National Park versus protecting the environment need not be mutually exclusive. Both are actually required. Human enjoyment fosters the desire for protection and an evolving environment ethic. We may