Costa Rica Expands Cocos Island National Park by 27 times in size
President Carlos Alvarado of Costa Rica has signed a decree expanding the Cocos Island National Park, increasing the fully protected area in their Pacific waters by almost 53,000 square kilometers.
Costa Rica also creates the new Bicentennial Marine Managed Area
December 17, 2021—Today President Carlos Alvarado of Costa Rica has signed a decree expanding the Cocos Island National Park, increasing the fully protected area in their Pacific waters by almost 53,000 square kilometers. Located about 500 kilometers off Costa Rica’s Pacific coast, Cocos Island National Park is a fully protected area that bans fishing and other extractive activities, designated by the Costa Rican government in 1982. President Alvarado also created the Bicentennial Marine Managed Area, twice the size of the expanded Coco Island National Park, which will include some no-take areas and strengthen fisheries management.
This expansion follows an agreement that the presidents of Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador signed at the climate COP26 in Glasgow on November 2, committing to protect a total of 500,000 square kilometers in the eastern tropical Pacific. The region is home to endangered species of sharks, sea turtles and marine mammals that migrate in between marine protected areas along “marine highways.”
