8. Ecological Regional Planning in Costa Rica: An Approach to Protected Areas and Environmental Services

A protected area is a dynamic system that seeks to achieve a balance between socio-cultural and bio-physical aspects. This needs to be planned in any region and at different scales (national, regional, and local). The first few protected areas in Costa Rica were created in the 1970s with a view to preserve ecological resources, although, there were some isolated initiatives such as the Cabo Blanco Absolute Reserve implemented in 1963 among others. The country has more than 200 protected areas spread over mainland and oceanic territories applying diverse categories (Biological reserves, national parks, wildlife refuges, forest reserves, water protected zones, and wetlands). To manage these protected areas in 1998, Costa Rica’s government established eleven regions. In addition, in 1996, Costa Rica approved a Forestry Law (7575) that carried out environmental services and afterward, established a new regional system with eight areas, as a result, the country has two different regional planning approaches to conservation issues: one for protected areas and the other for environmental services. This chapter analyzes how the two regional planning systems attend to environmental concerns and its implications from the spatial perspective. In addition, it analyzes the environmental services according to scale of the protected areas located in each region during the last five years as case study. Finally, it identifies some challenges for regional planning to improve conservation according to changing needs.