San Juan-La Selva Biological Corridor

Selva Verde’s Costa Rica Rainforest Reserve has been identified as a critical piece of the San Juan-La Selva Biological Corridor, which itself is part of the greater Mesoamerican Biological Corridor initiative in Central America. The Mesoamerican Corridor is an envisioned greenway of protected habitat stretching from Mexico to Panama along the Caribbean Sea.

Corridors are large pieces of rainforest linking habitat where wildlife can move and mate freely. The San Juan-La Selva corridor is vital because Costa Rica’s rainforest is home to 5% of all the world’s known animal and plant species.

This Costa Rican Sarapiqui corridor links the Braulio Carrillo National Park to rainforest surrounding La Selva Biological Station. Among the wildlife here are jaguars, howler monkeys, vipers, sloths, more than 300 species of birds, and thousands of species of insects.

Great Green Macaw Project

One initiative of the San Juan–La Selva Biological Corridor is the Great Green Macaw Project. The Great Green Macaw is considered an emblematic species with less than 200 individuals remaining in the Costa Rican rainforest. Its habitat, the Almendo tree, is being threatened by logging in Costa Rica’s Saripiqui region.

Conservation efforts are also underway to unite the San Juan–La Selva Biological Corridor with the El Castillo in Nicaragua, connecting the northern plains and Caribbean coast of Costa Rica to the Nicaraguan ecosystems. This would consolidate 29 protected areas, creating a total area of 1.3 million hectares of protected habitat for the macaw.

Protecting the Great Green Macaw’s habitat also protects the habitat of other birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and countless plant species in the region.

For more information on the San Juan-La Selva Biological Corridor visit this website: