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Deforestation In Costa Rica
Deforestation is a major threat to biodiversity and ecosystems in Costa Rica. The country has a rich biodiversity with some 12,000 species of plants, 1,239 species of butterflies, 838 species of birds, 440 species of reptiles and amphibians, and 232 species of mammals, which have been under threat from the effects of deforestation. Agricultural development, cattle ranching, and logging have caused major deforestation as more land is cleared for these activities. Despite government efforts to mitigate deforestation, it continues to cause harm to the environment of Costa Rica by impacting flooding, soil erosion, desertification, and loss of biodiversity. History The land currently being used for forestry in Costa Rica was at one point used by the Cabécar People. Like many other native cultures, they used slash and burn agriculture to manage their small-scale agriculture. In the early 1900s, companies based in England began to encroach on the Cabecars' land to use it for c ...
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A Guanacaste View
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives. The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version can be written in two forms: the double-storey a and single-storey ɑ. The latter is commonly used in handwriting and fonts based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is also found in italic type. In English grammar, " a", and its variant " an", are indefinite articles. History The earliest certain ancestor of "A" is aleph (also written 'aleph), the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet, which consisted entirely of consonants (for that reason, it is also called an abjad to distinguish it fr ...
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Banana
A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry (botany), berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa (genus), Musa''. In some countries, Cooking banana, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", distinguishing them from dessert bananas. The fruit is variable in size, color, and firmness, but is usually elongated and curved, with soft flesh rich in starch covered with a rind, which may be green, yellow, red, purple, or brown when ripe. The fruits grow upward in clusters near the top of the plant. Almost all modern edible seedless (Parthenocarpy, parthenocarp) bananas come from two wild species – ''Musa acuminata'' and ''Musa balbisiana''. The Binomial nomenclature, scientific names of most cultivated bananas are ''Musa acuminata'', ''Musa balbisiana'', and Musa × paradisiaca, ''Musa'' × ''paradisiaca'' for the hybrid ''Musa acuminata'' × ''M. balbisiana'', depending on their genome, ...
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World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million Military personnel, personnel from more than 30 countries. The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Air warfare of World War II, Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and deploying the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the List of wars by death toll, deadliest conflict in hu ...
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Ecosystem Service
Ecosystem services are the many and varied benefits to humans provided by the natural environment and healthy ecosystems. Such ecosystems include, for example, agroecosystems, forest ecosystem, grassland ecosystems, and aquatic ecosystems. These ecosystems, functioning in healthy relationships, offer such things as natural pollination of crops, clean air, extreme weather mitigation, and human mental and physical well-being. Collectively, these benefits are becoming known as ecosystem services, and are often integral to the provision of food, the provisioning of clean drinking water, the decomposition of wastes, and the resilience and productivity of food ecosystems. While scientists and environmentalists have discussed ecosystem services implicitly for decades, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) in the early 2000s popularized this concept. There, ecosystem services are grouped into four broad categories: ''provisioning'', such as the production of food and water; ''r ...
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Biological Reserve
A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for purposes of conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research. They may be designated by government institutions in some countries, or by private landowners, such as charities and research institutions. Nature reserves fall into different IUCN categories depending on the level of protection afforded by local laws. Normally it is more strictly protected than a nature park. Various jurisdictions may use other terminology, such as ecological protection area or private protected area in legislation and in official titles of the reserves. History Cultural practices that roughly equate to the establishment and maintenance of reserved areas for animals date back ...
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National Park
A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently, there is a common idea: the conservation of 'wild nature' for posterity and as a symbol of national pride. The United States established the first "public park or pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people", Yellowstone National Park, in 1872. Although Yellowstone was not officially termed a "national park" in its establishing law, it was always termed such in practice and is widely held to be the first and oldest national park in the world. However, the Tobago Main Ridge Forest Reserve (in what is now Trinidad and Tobago; established in 1776), and the area surrounding Bogd Khan Uul Mountain (Mongolia, 1778), which were restricted from cultivation in order to pr ...
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Forest Cover
Forest cover is the amount of forest that covers a particular area of land. It may be measured as relative (in percent) or absolute (in square kilometres/ square miles). Around a third of the world's surface is covered with forest, with closed-canopy forest accounting for 4 - 5 billion hectares of land. Forests provide many ecosystem services that humans and animals cannot survive without, but anthropogenic actions and climate change are threatening global forest cover in potentially irreversible ways. Global Patterns Forest Cover By The Numbers According to the FAO's Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020, the world has a total forest area of 4.06 billion hectares (10.0 billion acres), which is 31% of the total land area. More than one-third of the world's forest cover is primary forest: naturally regenerated forests with native species and no visible indication of human activity. More than half (54%) of the world's forests are found in only five countries (Brazil, Canada, ...
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Corcovado National Park
Corcovado National Park ( es, Parque Nacional Corcovado) is a National Park on the Osa Peninsula, in Osa Canton, southwestern Costa Rica (9° North, 83° West), which is part of the Osa Conservation Area. It was established on 24 October 1975, and encompasses an area of . It is the largest park in Costa Rica and protects about a third of the Osa Peninsula. It is widely considered the crown jewel in the extensive system of national parks and biological reserves spread across the country. ''National Geographic'' has called it "the most biologically intense place on Earth in terms of biodiversity". The park conserves the largest primary forest on the American Pacific coastline and one of the few remaining sizable areas of lowland tropical forests in the world. Historically, logging has taken place in lowland areas due to their easy accessibility and the presence of the largest and most economically valuable trees. But those habitats, which feature diverse vegetation, are als ...
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Daniel Oduber Quirós
Porfirio Ricardo José Luis Daniel Oduber Quirós (August 25, 1921 – October 13, 1991) was a Costa Rican politician, lawyer, philosopher, poet, and essayist. He served as the President of Costa Rica from 1974 to 1978. He is credited with the creation of the Sistema Nacional de Radio y Televisión and the Universidad Estatal a Distancia. Oduber worked as a lawyer early in his career. In 1945, Oduber went to Canada to study philosophy at McGill University, graduating with a Master of Arts degree. In 1948, he returned to Costa Rica and participated in the revolution led by José Figueres Ferrer. When their faction won, he was named Secretary General of the Second Republic of Costa Rica. Some time later he traveled to Paris, where he continued his philosophical studies at the Sorbonne. In 1948, while studying in France, he married Marjorie Elliott Sypher, the daughter of Canadian diplomats. The couple had two children, Luis Adrian and Ana María. After returning to Costa Rica, ...
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Squatting In Costa Rica
Squatting in Costa Rica was used by settlers to expand the frontier. It was regulated in law and then criminalised in 1961, yet occupations continued, in particular peasants using land invasions to gain property for living and farming. In the 1990s squatters clashed with absentee landlords. History Squatting in Costa Rica began as settlers expanded the frontier. It was legitimated as a means to access land by laws enacted in 1885 and 1888. As in most Latin American countries, land titles can be acquired in Costa Rica through usucaption. Claimants, amongst them squatters, can present evidence to the court that they have been in continuous and open occupation for ten years and with the support of the neighbours they often gain title. A 1941 ordinance () declared that a maximum of 300 hectares could be claimed in this way. The following year, the was intended to enable owners whose land in the Central Valley had been squatted to claim state-owned areas in replacement. Since the co ...
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Osa Peninsula
The Osa Peninsula ( es, Península de Osa) is a peninsula located in southwestern Costa Rica, in the Puntarenas Province, with the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Golfo Dulce to the east. The peninsula was formed geologically by a faulting system that extends north into California. The peninsula is home to at least half of all species living in Costa Rica. The main town on the peninsula is Puerto Jimenez, which has its own airport and provides access to Corcovado National Park as well as the coastal villages of Cabo Matapalo and Carate. A large part of the peninsula is a wildlife/forest preserve that is protected: the Osa Conservation Area. See also * Coronado Bay, northwest of Osa Peninsula * Drake Bay, located on the north side of the peninsula * Golfito * Osa Wildlife Sanctuary Osa Wildlife Sanctuary The Osa Wildlife Sanctuary ( es, Fundación Santuario Silvestre de Osa) or Caña Blanca Wildlife Sanctuary, is an animal rescue center located in Osa Peninsula in ...
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Environmental Degradation
Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as quality of air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems; habitat destruction; the extinction of wildlife; and pollution. It is defined as any change or disturbance to the environment perceived to be deleterious or undesirable. Environmental concerns can be defined as the negative effects of any human activity on the environment. The biological as well as the physical features of the environment are included. Some of the primary environmental challenges that are causing great worry are air pollution, water pollution, natural environment pollution, rubbish pollution, and so o Environmental degradation is one of the ten threats officially cautioned by the High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, high-level PaneI on Threats, Challenges and Change of the United Nations. The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction defines environmental d ...
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