Costa rica News

RSS
201 stories
A forest in Costa Rica. The country is considered a pioneer in a forest protection mechanism that has helped drastically reverse deforestation. Image by Rhett Butler.

Listening to forests reveals signs of recovery beyond tree cover

Abhishyant Kidangoor 16 Apr 2026
Emergent rainforest tree in the Amazon. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler for Mongabay.

Indigenous & community leaders say, ‘secure forest financing with us, not for us’ (commentary)

Inés Morales Lastra, José Ivanildo, Levi Sucre 7 Apr 2026

Compost, racoons and sea turtle predation in Costa Rica

Bobby Bascomb 25 Mar 2026
Examining coffee plants in the fields of a CoopeTarrazú grower.

Costa Rica’s head start may mask tougher EUDR road ahead

Claudia Geib 13 Mar 2026
A howler monkey traverses unprotected electric lines in Costa Rica, a situation that leads to deaths of many monkeys, sloths, kinkajous and more. Image courtesy of International Animal Rescue.

Costa Rica’s top court orders action to shield wildlife from power line hazards

Bobby Bascomb 16 Feb 2026
Jay M Savage. Screenshot from an interview with OTS.

Jay M. Savage, witness to disappearing frogs and builder of tropical science

Rhett Ayers Butler 27 Dec 2025
Monkeys traverse unprotected electric lines in Costa Rica, a situation that leads to deaths of many monkeys, sloths, kinkajous and more. Image courtesy of International Animal Rescue.

Costa Rica’s ‘shocking’ wildlife crisis: Nation must move to prevent animal electrocution (commentary)

Elena Kukovica 17 Dec 2025

Stricter rules adopted to protect sloths from pet trade and selfie tourism

Fernanda Wenzel 9 Dec 2025
Amanda L. Cordeiro (left), a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Minnesota and Daniela F. Cusack, Associate Professor in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability at Colorado State University at one of their research sites to investigate how root systems react to climatic changes.

Tropical forest roots show strain as changes aboveground filter below

Petro Kotzé 15 Jul 2025
Tropical forests in places like Costa Rica (pictured) can be an important source of livelihoods by attracting nature-oriented tourists. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

Nearly half of tree species in Mexico and Central America threatened with extinction

Liz Kimbrough 9 Jul 2025
Banner image of a jaguar with a fish, courtesy of Andrea Reyes/Jaguares en la Selva.

How Costa Rica’s ranchers contribute to jaguar and puma conservation

Mongabay.com 28 May 2025

Without vultures, carcasses are slow to rot and disease-carrying flies abound

Liz Kimbrough 22 May 2025
Chemical lures designed to mimic the scent of ripe fruit have helped attract fruit-eating bats from the genus Carollia, such as Seba's short-tailed bat (C. perspicillata).

Lures that attract seed-dispersing bats could aid tropical reforestation

Sean Mowbray 30 Jan 2025
The illegal trade is still one of the greatest threats to hawksbills, according to the April 2020 Global Tortoiseshell Report.

Illegal cockfighting threatens endangered sea turtles across Central America

Tina Deines 13 Dec 2024

In Costa Rica, sustainable tourism is no longer enough for conservation

Michele Bertelli 21 Oct 2024

For ranchers in Costa Rica, jaguars and pumas become unexpected allies

Darío Chinchilla 3 Oct 2024
Workers in "Agbogbloshie," a site with electronic scrap material, in Ghana, 2011.

Ever-smarter consumer electronics push world toward environmental brink

Gerry McGovern, Sue Branford 30 Sep 2024

Just 0.7% of land hosts one-third of unique, endangered species, study

Bobby Bascomb 18 Sep 2024

Failed U.S. ‘war on drugs’ endangers Central American bird habitats, study warns

Boris van der Spek 3 Sep 2024

3D ‘digital twin’ rainforest maps could help reforestation programs in Costa Rica

Mark Hillsdon 20 Aug 2024
Costa Rica rainforest

Conservation pays and everyone’s benefitting from it (commentary)

Diego Vincenzi 15 Jul 2024
A lemur leaf frog in Costa Rica.

Are carbon credits another resource-for-cash grab? Interview with Alondra Cerdes Morales & Samuel Nguiffo

Latoya Abulu, Sonam Lama Hyolmo 22 May 2024
wetland

Costa Rican community struggles to stop an airport ‘destroying our country’

Alice Pistolesi, Monica Pelliccia 8 Apr 2024
The 2024 paper proposes Leopardus pardinoides, or the clouded tiger cat, as a new species. This small wildcat is found in the cloud forests of Costa Rica, south to Panama, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina. Image courtesy of Johanes Pfleiderer. Article title - A tiger cat gains new species designation, but conservation challenges remain

A tiger cat gains new species designation, but conservation challenges remain

Sean Mowbray 5 Apr 2024
Producing an AI chip requires 10-15 times more energy than making a standard chip.

Critics fear catastrophic energy crisis as AI is outsourced to Latin America

Gerry McGovern, Sue Branford 21 Mar 2024
A Geoffroy's spider monkey

Tech to recover rainforest: Interview with Osa Conservation’s Carolina Pinto & Paulina Rodriguez

Abhishyant Kidangoor 21 Feb 2024
Rainforest in Sulawesi. Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler

2024 outlook for rainforests

Rhett Ayers Butler 3 Jan 2024

Restoring degraded forests may be key for climate, study says

Liz Kimbrough 6 Oct 2023

Counting dead cats on Costa Rica’s highways: Q&A with Daniela Araya Gamboa

Astrid Arellano 5 Apr 2023
A resplendent quetzal.

Mountain islands: Restoring a transitional cloud forest in Costa Rica

Jeremy Hance 29 Mar 2023

Swinging to safety: How canopy bridges may save Costa Rica’s howlers

Noah Tobias 15 Feb 2023

Costa Rica announces ban on fishing of hammerhead sharks

Maxwell Radwin 10 Feb 2023

you're currently offline