The Guanacaste Conservation Area to Rescue Dry Tropical Forest

As a UNESCO World heritage site (1999), the Guanacaste Conservation Area attracted my eyes when I was thinking about the itinerary in Costa Rica. Located in the North-western side of the country, close to the Nicaragua’s border, it is the land of the second most extensive protected dry tropical forest in the World (just after the Kakadu National park in Australia). This was my first experience of the rich wildlife of Costa Rica.

Outstanding Universal Value

The Area de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG) comprises 163,000 hectares of land and sea in the Northwest of Costa Rica. Encompassing several contiguous protected areas of various categories, the property is a mosaic of diverse ecosystems. The 104,000 hectares of land encompass a continuum of roughly 100 kilometres from the shore of the Pacific to the lowland rainforests in the Caribbean basin.

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Jaguar Conservation and Protected Areas: Notable Project of Belize Audubon Society

Once more, we did not have chance to see many animals in this very rich in biodiversity protected area of Belize. The Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary is part of the Meso-American biocorridor running from Mexico to Panama.

Belize (government and NGOs) tackles environment conservation as a national priority, with an extensive protected areas system, co-management operations and very motivated and skilled teams. The Belize Audubon Society, a renowned conservation organization, welcomed us and organize our amazing stay in Cockscomb. During two nights (entrance fee 10$/person, camping 20$/night/person), we really felt like sleeping in the middle of the rainforest, surrounded by animal noises. That was magic! Good to know that natural and easily accessible paradises still exist on Earth.

The Biosphere Reserve of Calakmul: Diversity Protected by The Jungle

A detour really worst to do for The Heritage Route. Our bicycle drove us till the Calakmul natural sanctuary, very close to the Guatemalan and Quintana Roo mexican state borders.

The Biosphere Reserve of Calakmul is the largest continuous forest area in the Mexican tropics. It spans a surface area of 723.185 hectares of the only high humid jungles in the Yucatan Peninsula. Due to its inaccessibility, scarcity of water and poor soil for agriculture, Calakmul has been preserved as one of the least deforested regions in the Peninsula.

Bordering protected forested areas in Quintana Roo, the Guatemalan Peten and Belize makes the area of Calakmul extremely important because of its diversity of flora and fauna and the conservation of species that need large areas for their living requirements, like the puma, the jaguar, and various migrating species. The region makes up part of the Mesoamerican Biological corridor which allows movement in both directions between the North of the Yucatan Peninsula and the sub humid and humid climates to the South of the Mesoamerican region. We will try to know more about the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor during our journey in Central America.