The beautiful tropical dry forest of northwest Costa Rica, with its highly seasonal rainfall and diversely vegetated landscape, is disappearing even more rapidly than Costa Rica's better-known rain forest, primarily because it has been easier to convert to agriculture. This book, based on more than thirty years of study, offers the first comprehensive look at the ecology, biodiversity, and conservation status of this endangered and fragile region. The contributors, from Costa Rica, Britain, Mexico, and the United States, and representing the fields of ecology, environmental education, policy, and the law, examine the major plant and animal groups living in the dry forest and present the first technical evaluation of Costa Rica's conservation efforts. As they assess the status of their area of specialty in the dry forest, the contributors also look beyond this particular region to show how its plants and animals are ecologically and evolutionarily connected to other geographic areas in Costa Rica and Central America. Their chapters cover topics such as watershed and coastal management, plant phenology, pollination, insects, birds, mammals, amphibians, and reptiles. They also consider the socioeconomic, policy, legal, and political aspects of biodiversity conservation, giving the volume a wide-ranging perspective and making a unique contribution to our knowledge of the tropical dry forest. The book concludes with an important synthesis of the contributors' recommendations on future directions, policies, and actions that will better conserve biodiversity in Costa Rica and other neotropical forests as well. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 2005.
Many titles in the Voices Revived program are also newly available as ebooks, offered at a discounted price to support wider access to scholarly work.
Gordon W. Frankie is Professor of Insect Biology in the College of Natural Resources at the University of California, Berkeley. Alfonso Mata is Environmental Science Specialist at the Tropical Science Center in San Pedro, Costa Rica. S. Bradleigh Vinson is Professor of Entomology at Texas A & M University, College Station.
"The lessons and recommendations throughout the book, and especially those in the last chapter, are forceful and risk-taking. It will be read and discussed at the highest levels."—Gail Hewson-Hull, Project Manager of Science Now, California Academy of Sciences
"This book is an excellent synthesis of the ecological basis of biodiversity conservation in the seasonally dry forest ecosystems of northwest Costa Rica, as well as a valuable analysis of the effectiveness of conservation efforts in a country renowned for its global leadership in protecting and inventorying biological diversity."—Gary S. Hartshorn, President and CEO, Organization for Tropical Studies "
Biodiversity Conservation in Costa Rica captures the mystique and realities of land and wildlife conservation in one of the world's most fascinating and threatened systems. The authors blend the scientific, social, political, and legal into a commanding, optimistic treatment of the ongoing evolution of the human-nature experience."—Justin O. Schmidt, Southwestern Biological Institute
352 pp.7 x 10
9780520426276$95.00|£80.00Hardcover
Mar 2025