How Much of Costa Rica Is Protected? A Guide to Its Parks

About a quarter of Costa Rica is protected. The government’s official map counts 152 protected wild areas covering roughly 25.5% of the country’s land, plus about 30% of its marine territory. Forest is a separate measure: it covers close to 60% of the country, much of it outside those protected areas.

This guide explains how much of Costa Rica is protected, what the different types of protected areas mean for visitors, how the country rebuilt its forests after heavy deforestation, and how to visit parks and reserves without adding to the problem.

Figures come from SINAC’s 2023 official map of protected areas. Totals change slightly as areas are added or redrawn.

The answer

How Much of Costa Rica Is Protected?

On land, the answer is about one quarter. Costa Rica’s 152 protected wild areas cover roughly 13,032 square kilometers, which is 25.5% of the national territory. At sea, the protected share is higher: about 30.3% of the country’s exclusive economic zone, most of it far offshore around Cocos Island.

You’ll often see higher land figures, sometimes “nearly 28%” or “more than a quarter.” The difference usually comes from counting private reserves, Indigenous territories or buffer areas, which aren’t part of the official tally. Private reserves, including the well-known Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, protect a lot of additional forest but are owned and run by nonprofits, families or businesses.

Categories

Types of Protected Areas in Costa Rica

Costa Rica’s protected areas fall into several legal categories. The category tells you a lot about what you can do there. National parks are built for visitors, while biological reserves and absolute natural reserves put research and protection first.

SINAC groups these areas into 11 regional conservation areas, such as Osa, Tortuguero, Guanacaste and Marina Cocos, each with its own staff and rangers. Indigenous territories are a separate legal category and aren’t part of the 152, though many contain large forests. Visits there should go through community-run tourism projects.

Protected Areas Worth Visiting

• National parks: Manuel Antonio for beaches and easy trails, Corcovado for deep rainforest, Santa Rosa for dry forest and history, and Braulio Carrillo, Tapantí and Carara for day trips from San José.
• Biological reserves: Caño Island for snorkeling and scuba trips, and Lomas Barbudal for Guanacaste’s dry forest.
• Marine areas: Ballena National Marine Park for whales and tide pools, and Cocos Island National Park, reachable only on multi-day liveaboard boat trips.
• Turtle beaches: Several parks and refuges protect nesting beaches. See our guide to sea turtle nesting sites and how to get to Tortuguero.

History

How Costa Rica Built Its Protected Areas

Costa Rica’s conservation record came out of a crisis. In the early 20th century, forest covered roughly three-quarters of the country. Between the 1940s and late 1980s, clearing for cattle pasture and farming cut that to about 21%, one of the fastest rates of forest loss anywhere at the time.

• 1963: Cabo Blanco, at the tip of the Nicoya Peninsula, becomes the country’s first protected area, after a campaign by Nicolás Wessberg and Karen Mogensen.
• 1970s and 1980s: A national park system grows quickly, adding many of today’s best-known parks.
• 1996: The Forestry Law (Law 7575) bans clearing forest without a permit and creates FONAFIFO, the national forestry financing fund.
• 1997: The Payment for Environmental Services program (PSA) begins paying landowners to protect forest, plant trees and guard watersheds. A fuel tax funds most of it, and enrollment passed 1 million hectares by the early 2020s.
• 1998: The Biodiversity Law organizes protected areas under SINAC and its regional conservation areas.
• 2021: Costa Rica adds about 53,000 square kilometers of fully protected ocean to Cocos Island National Park and creates the 105,000-square-kilometer Bicentennial Marine Management Area next to it.

The results drew international attention. Costa Rica was named a UN Champion of the Earth for policy leadership in 2019, and in 2021 it won the first Earthshot Prize in the Protect and Restore Nature category for the PSA program.

Funding

Debt-for-Nature Swaps and Other Funding

Protecting a quarter of a country costs money that park fees alone don’t cover. Besides the fuel tax behind PSA, Costa Rica has used debt-for-nature swaps, where a creditor forgives debt in exchange for conservation spending.

The best-known example came in 2007. The United States agreed to forgive about $26 million of Costa Rican debt under the Tropical Forest Conservation Act. The U.S. government put in $12.6 million, and The Nature Conservancy and Conservation International added $1.26 million each. The money went to forest conservation in areas such as the Osa Peninsula, Tortuguero, La Amistad and the Nicoya Peninsula.

Visiting

How to Visit Costa Rica’s Protected Areas Responsibly

• Buy tickets in advance. Many national parks sell entry online only, in timed slots, through SINAC. Our guide to buying park tickets on SINAC walks through it.
• Check closing days and caps. Popular parks limit daily visitors, and some close one day a week. Manuel Antonio, for example, is closed on Tuesdays.
• Hire a guide where it makes sense. Some parks, such as Corcovado, require a certified guide. Elsewhere a guide is optional but usually helps you spot far more wildlife.
• Don’t feed or touch wildlife. Feeding monkeys and raccoons is illegal in parks and makes animals aggressive.
• Choose certified operators. The tourism board’s Certification for Sustainable Tourism (CST) rates hotels and tour companies on environmental and social practices.

For more ideas, see our Costa Rica ecotourism guide. If you’re heading to the cloud forest, our list of Monteverde hotels is a good place to start.

FAQ

Costa Rica Protected Land FAQ