Jairo Mora Sandoval Gandoca-Manzanillo Mixed Wildlife Refuge ( es, Refugio Nacional de Vida Silvestre Mixto Jairo Mora Sandoval Gandoca-Manzanillo), is a

protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

, managed under the

Caribbean La Amistad Conservation Area Caribbean La Amistad Conservation Area is an administrative area which is managed by SINAC for the purposes of conservation in the eastern part of Costa Rica, on the Caribbean coast. It contains several national parks, and a number wildlife ref ...

, it was created in 1986 by decree. It protects both a land portion as well as a marine portion. In 2013 the refuge was renamed to honour the murdered environmentalist Jairo Mora Sandoval. In 2014 land along the coast containing a number of small towns was removed from the refuge, due to complaints from the local residents about evictions and destruction of property due to strict

building code A building code (also building control or building regulations) is a set of rules that specify the standards for constructed objects such as buildings and non-building structures. Buildings must conform to the code to obtain planning permissi ...

s. It is one of only two places in Costa Rica where

manatee Manatees (family Trichechidae, genus ''Trichechus'') are large, fully aquatic, mostly herbivorous marine mammals sometimes known as sea cows. There are three accepted living species of Trichechidae, representing three of the four living speci ...

s still occur. It is located in a coastal beach region, fronted by

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of Colony (biology), colonies of coral polyp (zoology), polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, wh ...

s and clothed in

tropical forest Tropical forests (a.k.a. jungle) are forested landscapes in tropical regions: ''i.e.'' land areas approximately bounded by the tropic of Cancer and Capricorn, but possibly affected by other factors such as prevailing winds. Some tropical fore ...

, with 1950-3000mm yearly precipitation. The Gandoca-Manzanillo

Ramsar site A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention,8 ha (O) *** Permanent 8 ha (P) *** Seasonal Intermittent < 8 ha(Ts) **

Talamanca canton Talamanca is a canton in the Limón province of Costa Rica. The head city is Bribri, located in Bratsi district. History Talamanca was created on 20 May 1969 by decree 4339. Geography Talamanca has an area of km² and a mean elevation of ...

, the Jairo Mora Sandoval Gandoca-Manzanillo Mixed Wildlife Refuge is found at the southernmost Atlantic coast of Costa Rica, next to the border with

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...

. It has two entrances, the first and main access is at the village of Manzanillo which provides services to this area and is the terminus of Route 256, which has a junction with Route 36, which starts in

Limón Limón (), commonly known as Puerto Limón, is a district, the capital city and main hub of Limón province, as well as of the Limón canton in Costa Rica. It is the seventh largest city in Costa Rica, with a population of over 55,000, and is ho ...

district. Route 256 runs along the coastline, and the end of it is almost completely encircled by the refuge -the marine part of the refuge includes the sea, and further inland west of the road is the land part of the refuge. It ends at the small town of Manzanillo, which likewise forms a salient almost completely encircled by the refuge. This area includes hotels, rental homes, mini boutique resorts, restaurants, bakeries and beach bars, as well as a few public beaches at the villages of Punta Cocles, Playa Chiquita and Punta Uva. These villages were formerly part of the park, but were removed from the refuge to allow for local development. The second access is near the small town of Gandoca, which can be accessed from Route 36 near the border crossing with

over the

Sixaola River The Sixaola River ( Spanish: ''Río Sixaola'') is a river in southern Limón Province, Costa Rica.Google Earth It flows from the Cordillera Talamanca to the Caribbean Sea northeast of Sixaola at . The river's headwaters are part of the La Amis ...

. There are at least three small villages or populated areas within the refuge: Punta Mona and Mile Creek along the coast, and Finca Buena Fe along the Sixaola River. The Gandoca-Manzanillo

Ramsar site A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention,8 ha (O) *** Permanent 8 ha (P) *** Seasonal Intermittent < 8 ha(Ts) **

Jaguar Rescue Center abutting the refuge near Route 256. Further inland to the west from the town of Gandoca lies a Bribri reservation,

Kéköldi The Indigenous Territory of Kéköldi is one of the Costa Rican indigenous communities and one of the four of the Bribri people. It was created in 1977 and has about 210 inhabitants. It is located in the Talamanca-Caribe biological corridor that ...

. The larger area around the refuge is largely devoted to banana and plantain cultivation, both conventional plantations and mixed

subsistence A subsistence economy is an economy directed to basic subsistence (the provision of food, clothing, shelter) rather than to the market. Henceforth, "subsistence" is understood as supporting oneself at a minimum level. Often, the subsistence econo ...

plots.

History

Northern Tamandua Anteater (Tamandua mexicana) in Costa Rica

The territory was originally inhabited by the Bribri people. During the 1700s, Afro-descendant fishermen from the English colonies seasonally migrated up and down the Caribbean coast to hunt for

sea turtle Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerhe ...

s. In 1828 one of these fishermen brought his family up to Cahuita Point (now

Cahuita National Park Cahuita National Park is a terrestrial and marine national park in the Caribbean La Amistad Conservation Area of Costa Rica located on the southern Caribbean coast in Limón Province, connected to the town of Cahuita. It protects beaches and l ...

) and in the following years the coast was subsequently settled by other families. Some historians allege that when in the early 20th century the US

United Fruit Company The United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) was an American multinational corporation that traded in tropical fruit (primarily bananas) grown on Latin American plantations and sold in the United States and Europe. The company was formed in 1899 fro ...

moved into the country to begin banana plantations in the area, they murdered Bribri leaders and violently forced them off their land, causing them to flee away from the lowlands into the mountains. Other historians say Bribri and Cabécar moved to the area in the 1920s, working as day-labourers on cocoa farms along the coast, eventually settling and establishing their own farms. As measles and other diseases struck the

Cordillera de Talamanca The Cordillera de Talamanca is a mountain range that lies in the southeast half of Costa Rica and the far west of Panama. Much of the range and the area around it is included in La Amistad International Park, which also is shared between the tw ...

in the 1930s, more people moved to the coastal region. The refuge was created in 1986 by national decree 16614-MAG. When it was created, the reserve originally included numerous small fishing villages along the coast inhabited by a population of the English-speaking Afro-Caribbean minority. The region never saw the historical development as elsewhere in Costa Rica, and flimsy bridges along dirt roads kept the

capital city A capital city or capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, department, or other subnational entity, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city that physically encompasses t ...

far away during much of the 20th century, which helped preserve the culture and nature. The 1992 novel ''The Madwoman of Gandoca'' ( es, La Loca de Gandoca), by Anacristina Rossi depicts the fights and efforts to create the refuge from an autobiographical point of view, as there were opposite private and government efforts to develop the area as a travel resort, the book was required reading at high school ( secondary level) in Costa Rica. On 2 September 2013 the refuge was renamed from the 'Gandoca-Manzanillo National Wildlife Refuge' to the present name, to honour the murdered environmentalist Jairo Mora Sandoval. The formal posthumous homage ceremony was held in the refuge on 26 April 2014. Having their lands declared a nature reserve subjected the community which found itself inhabiting the refuge to strict and onerous

s as well as Costa Rica's Maritime Law, and numerous houses or local businesses were notified of impending evictions and subsequent demolitions of their properties in the early 2010s, leading to resentment towards the refuge and complaints of

greenwashing Greenwashing (a compound word modeled on "whitewash"), also called "green sheen", is a form of advertising or marketing spin in which green PR and green marketing are deceptively used to persuade the public that an organization's products, aim ...

racism. In 2014 the Costa Rican legislature adopted Law 9223, ''Recognition of the Rights of Inhabitants of the South Caribbean'', by which 900 acres of land along the coast were removed from the refuge in order to rectify this situation.

Importance

In the early 1990s, the refuge was said to be economically important to local inhabitants for its fishing grounds, as fishing was a main source of revenue.

Flora and habitats

Sensitive Plant (Mimosa pudica) in Costa Rica

The refuge protects

mangroves A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in sever ...

estuaries An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environme ...

seagrass Seagrasses are the only flowering plants which grow in marine environments. There are about 60 species of fully marine seagrasses which belong to four families ( Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae and Cymodoceaceae), all in the ...

, inundated forests,

coral reefs A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. ...

nesting. The palm ''

Raphia taedigera ''Raphia taedigera'' is a palm species in the family Arecaceae, colloquially known as yolilla in Central American Spanish. It is found in parts of Western Africa, Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion ...

'', locally known as ''yolillo'', and the trees '' Campnosperma panamensis'' (''orey'') and '' Prioria copaifera'' (''cativo'') are particularly common. There are some mangroves are present, primarily in a wide channel in the mouth of the Río Gandoca near the village of Gandoca, where there are some 250ha. dominated by ''

Rhizophora mangle ''Rhizophora mangle'', the red mangrove, is distributed in estuarine ecosystems throughout the tropics. Its viviparous "seeds", in actuality called propagules, become fully mature plants before dropping off the parent tree. These are disperse ...

''. There are a number of other small patches up and down the coast, many in the process of enlargement. The beaches along this coast of Costa Rica are completely covered in seawater up to the treeline twice a day at high tide. Much of the coastline suffers from

coastal erosion Coastal erosion is the loss or displacement of land, or the long-term removal of sediment and rocks along the coastline due to the action of waves, currents, tides, wind-driven water, waterborne ice, or other impacts of storms. The landwar ...

, knocking over trees as the soil below their roots is eaten away. Common trees here are

coconut The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family (Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, the seed, or the f ...

and sea grape. ''

Morinda citrifolia ''Morinda citrifolia'' is a fruit-bearing tree in the coffee family, Rubiaceae. Its native range extends across Southeast Asia and Australasia, and was spread across the Pacific by Polynesian sailors. The species is now cultivated throughout ...

'' and ''

Terminalia catappa ''Terminalia catappa'' is a large tropical tree in the leadwood tree family, Combretaceae, native to Asia, Australia, the Pacific, Madagascar and Seychelles. Common names in English include country almond, Indian almond, Malabar almond, sea almon ...

'', known locally as ''almendro de playa'', are introduced species from Asia which have also become common, many of these ''almendros'' have grown into large-sized individuals. ''Yolillo'' is found in extensive palm brakes known locally as ''yolillales'', where it is the dominant plant. This type of

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

forms on flat lowlands which are inundated by floodwaters for much of the year. Another palm species associated with these ''yolillo'' palms is the smaller '' Astrocaryum alatum'' (''coquito''). Other species occurring in these swamps are ''orey'', ''cativo'', '' Pterocarpus officinalis'' (''sangrillo'') and '' Carapa nicaraguensis'' (''caobilla''). A special forest ecosystem of some 400ha. occurs between Punta Mona and Middle Creek called ''cativales'' or ''cativera'', which is named after the dominant tree here, ''cativo''. This occurs in a flat, lowland area where the water level and the frequency of flooding are the greatest. The forest is somewhat open and the trees are short, allowing for a diverse composition of plant species, and enough light to reach the forest floor to allow an understory to develop consisting primarily of dwarf palms. An open herbaceous grassland swamp also occurs here, spreading over an area of 600ha. Besides grasses and floating vegetation, other common species are the trees ''

Mimosa pigra ''Mimosa pigra'', commonly known as the giant sensitive tree (''pigra'' = lazy, slow), is a species of plant of the genus ''Mimosa'', in the family Fabaceae. The genus ''Mimosa'' (Mimosaceae) contains 400–450 species, most of which are native ...

'' (''uña de gato'') and '' Dalbergia brownei'' (''varilla negra'').

Fauna

Several animals inhabit the refuge, among them: * Blue morpho butterfly * Caribbean spiny lobster *

Atlantic tarpon The Atlantic tarpon (''Megalops atlanticus'') is a ray-finned fish that inhabits coastal waters, estuary, estuaries, lagoons, and rivers. It is also known as the silver king. It is found in the Atlantic Ocean, typically in tropical and subtropica ...

() * Eyelash viper (, , ) *

Crocodile Crocodiles (family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term crocodile is sometimes used even more loosely to include all extant me ...

Caiman A caiman (also cayman as a variant spelling) is an alligatorid belonging to the subfamily Caimaninae, one of two primary lineages within the Alligatoridae family, the other being alligators. Caimans inhabit Mexico, Central and South America f ...

* Harly eagle * Red-lored parrot * Chestnut-mandibled toucan *

Keel-billed toucan The keel-billed toucan (''Ramphastos sulfuratus''), also known as sulfur-breasted toucan or rainbow-billed toucan, is a colorful Latin American member of the toucan family. It is the national bird of Belize. The species is found in tropical jung ...

* Tufted harrier *

Tapir Tapirs ( ) are large, herbivorous mammals belonging to the family Tapiridae. They are similar in shape to a pig, with a short, prehensile nose trunk. Tapirs inhabit jungle and forest regions of South and Central America, with one species inh ...

* Geoffroy's spider monkey *

Mantled howler The mantled howler (''Alouatta palliata'') is a species of howler monkey, a type of New World monkey, from Central and South America. It is one of the monkey species most often seen and heard in the wild in Central America. It takes its "mantle ...

* Panamanian white-faced capuchin *

Hoffmann's two-toed sloth Hoffmann's two-toed sloth (''Choloepus hoffmanni''), also known as the northern two-toed sloth is a species of sloth from Central and South America. It is a solitary, largely nocturnal and arboreal animal, found in mature and secondary rainf ...

Brown-throated sloth The brown-throated sloth (''Bradypus variegatus'') is a species of three-toed sloth found in the Neotropical realm of Central and South America. It is the most common of the four species of three-toed sloth, and is found in the forests of South ...

Northern tamandua The northern tamandua (''Tamandua mexicana'') is a species of tamandua, an anteater in the family Myrmecophagidae. They live in tropical and subtropical forests from southern Mexico, through Central America, and to the edge of the northern Andes ...

The refuge includes ''

Crassostrea rhizophorae ''Crassostrea rhizophorae'' is a species of bivalve Bivalvia (), in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class (biology), class of marine and freshwater Mollusca, molluscs that have laterally compr ...

'', the 'mangrove cupped oyster', these are the only known natural banks found in a coastline reef area. Three species of dolphin are known in the area. The Caribbean Sea hosts the

common bottlenose dolphin The common bottlenose dolphin or Atlantic bottlenose dolphin (''Tursiops truncatus'') is a wide-ranging marine mammal of the family Delphinidae. The common bottlenose dolphin is a very familiar dolphin due to the wide exposure it gets in captiv ...

and the

Atlantic spotted dolphin The Atlantic spotted dolphin (''Stenella frontalis'') is a dolphin found in warm temperate and tropical waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Older members of the species have a very distinctive spotted coloration all over their bodies. Taxonomy The Atl ...

. The freshwater

Guiana dolphin The Guiana dolphin (''Sotalia guianensis''), also known as the estuarine dolphin or costero, is a dolphin found in the coastal waters to the north and east of South America, and east of Central America. It is a member of the oceanic dolphin fam ...

, locally known as , was only recently discovered to occur here. Gandoca-Manzanillo is one of only two places in the country where

manatees Manatees (family Trichechidae, genus ''Trichechus'') are large, fully aquatic, mostly herbivorous marine mammals sometimes known as sea cows. There are three accepted living species of Trichechidae, representing three of the four living species ...

still occur. In former times they were hunted, using a special technique, for their meat. The

leatherback turtle The leatherback sea turtle (''Dermochelys coriacea''), sometimes called the lute turtle or leathery turtle or simply the wikt:luth#English, luth, is the largest of all living turtles and the heaviest non-crocodilian reptile, reaching lengths of ...

green turtle The green sea turtle (''Chelonia mydas''), also known as the green turtle, black (sea) turtle or Pacific green turtle, is a species of large sea turtle of the family Cheloniidae. It is the only species in the genus ''Chelonia''. Its range exten ...

and

hawksbill turtle The hawksbill sea turtle (''Eretmochelys imbricata'') is a critically endangered sea turtle belonging to the family Cheloniidae. It is the only extant species in the genus ''Eretmochelys''. The species has a global distribution, that is la ...

all lay eggs at beaches within the refuge. An attempt has been made to reintroduce captive-bred

great green macaw The great green macaw (''Ara ambiguus''), also known as Buffon's macaw or the great military macaw, is a Central and South American parrot found in Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador. Two allopatric subspecies are rec ...

s to the refuge, with 60 birds released as of 2019. These macaws live in artificial nesting barrels hung from trees.

Tourism

Access to the refuge is free. It is open from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. There are latrines, drinking water, a picnic area, parking areas, local guides and visitor assistance available. There are restaurants, and hotels and cabins for accommodation, located outside the refuge. There are paved and gravel access roads.

Swimming with dolphins The popularity of swimming with dolphins increased in the 1980s and 1990s, occurring in over 65 countries, both as a form of therapy as well as a tourist activity. Proponents of dolphin-assisted therapy (DAT) say that interacting with dolphins can ...

was a popular activity among tourists here, but Costa Rican law banned the practice in 2006 for the sake of the animals' health. Lionfish, ''

Pterois miles ''Pterois miles'', the devil firefish or common lionfish, is a species of ray-finned fish native to the western Indo-Pacific region. It is frequently confused with its close relative, the red lionfish (''Pterois volitans''). The scientific name ...

'' and ''P. volitans'', are an

invasive species An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species adv ...

of fish in the seas off the eastern coast of the country since 2009. The introduction to the environment appears to have displaced the native population of spiny lobsters, previously one of the most important commercial catch species in the area. Despite having poisonous spines, it is quite tasty. The local Southern Caribbean Artisanal Fishermen Association has organised an annual

snorkelling Snorkeling ( British and Commonwealth English spelling: snorkelling) is the practice of swimming on or through a body of water while equipped with a diving mask, a shaped breathing tube called a snorkel, and usually swimfins. In cooler waters, ...

and

harpoon A harpoon is a long spear-like instrument and tool used in fishing, whaling, sealing, and other marine hunting to catch and injure large fish or marine mammals such as seals and whales. It accomplishes this task by impaling the target ani ...

ing competition since 2012. It is also caught in (modified, or not)

lobster pot A lobster trap or lobster pot is a portable trap that traps lobsters or crayfish and is used in lobster fishing. In Scotland (chiefly in the north), the word creel is used to refer to a device used to catch lobsters and other crustaceans. A l ...

s. The fish have begun to become popular dishes in local restaurants.

Management

The refuge is managed by the

National System of Conservation Areas National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC, es, Sistema Nacional de Áreas de Conservación) is part of the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE) of Costa Rica. It is the administrator for the nation's national parks, conservation areas, an ...

(SINAC), a government agency, and is geographically categorised as within the greater

References

{{Authority control Nature reserves in Costa Rica Protected areas established in 1986 Ramsar sites in Costa Rica