Guanacaste Conservation Area (Official Site), is located northwest of Costa Rica, in the province of Guanacaste. It consists of National Parks: Santa Rosa, Guanacaste and Rincón de la Vieja; besides the Horizontes Forestry Station and Bahía Junquillal Wildlife Refuge.
We are one of eleven Conservation Areas that make up the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC) of the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE) of the Government of Costa Rica.
We apply conservation policies issued by the National Council of Conservation Areas and the Regional Council of ACG, taking action on the management and conservation of protected areas and the agro-landscape (surrounding territories to the protected wilderness area).
In the ACG we integrate a continuous block of marine and coastal ecosystems, dry tropical forest, tropical rain forest and tropical cloud forest, where it is estimated that there are approximately 235,000 species (65% of the estimated species in Costa Rica) and 2.6 % of global biodiversity.
The ACG work is based on the philosophy that we call Bio-development. We consider the Bio-development as the sum of a series of actions and projects through ACG programs aimed at demonstrate to the local, national and international society, that biodiversity and ecosystems are an important productive sector of goods and services, that they can be exploited without causing damage, so this way the society integrates and values the protected area and its conservation and perpetuation. The integration of society and protected area by local employment, bio-literacy in the schools, research assistants and para-taxonomists, local fire control brigades, marine bio- sensitization, forest restoration projects, environmental services, uses of technology, are examples of how the ACG promotes the Bio-development. The ACG is displayed itself as a "conservation enterprise" where especially through its programs and projects society understands, appreciates and values even more the importance of the protected area and its conservation.
Regarding the Resources Management in the areas surrounding the ASP the Management of Natural Resources is responsible for managing, regulating and controlling all related to wildlife exploitation and use of forest resources, water resources and watersheds, as well as control and protection in the area of agro-landscape in the Guanacaste Conservation Area.
We seek to develop the expertise, human resources and financial resources necessary to meet the objectives relating to management of natural resources corresponding to our area of action.