National Parks of Costa Rica: The Search in the 70s

How was the inventory carried out to identify future national parks and reserves? What challenges were faced? In what state were the areas finally chosen?

This book is a memoir about the role that young Christopher Vaughan played between 1971 and 1975, as a field biologist, in the newly created Department of National Parks of Costa Rica, under the direction of Mario Boza and the members of the Tropical Scientific Center, Drs. Joseph Tosi, Alexander Skutch and Leslie Holdridge.

In an entertaining manner, the author narrates his many adventures during the years of exploring 26 potential national parks and reserves, either alone or accompanied by guides or other biologists, while describing the adverse conditions that affected these areas: deforestation, burning, human settlements, gold extraction, hunting, exploitation by transnational companies and even difficult access.

Of the areas visited, more than 13 national parks and biological reserves were eventually created between 1972 and 1975, including Manuel Antonio Recreational Park (its initial name), Chirripó National Park, Corcovado National Park, Rincón de la Vieja National Park, the Guayabo National Monument, the Barra Honda National Park and five biological reserves.

This work, which is both a testimony and an adventure book, also offers a profuse amount of unpublished photographs from the time. We hope that it contributes, as the author wishes, to future generations appreciating and committing to the protection of these priceless treasures, and to the incredible biodiversity of Costa Rica, whose conservation has been the challenge of his life.