Design and Validation of a Biological Corridor in Costa Rica’s Golfo Dulce Forest Reserve 

Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE), Sistema Nacional de Áreas de Conservación (SINAC), part of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor Consolidation (CCAD, UNDP)

German Government, Corredor Biológico Mesoamericano, Fundación para el Futuro de Colombia, World Wildlife Fund – Costa Rica.

Remote Sensing Images: Osa Peninsula images LANDSAT TM (P14 R54 16/0898- P15 R54 21/08/97) - Lambert projection South Costa Rica; GIS software: ERDAS IMAGE 8.4, ArcView 3.1 + Extension Tools.

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Forest, Feline

The biological corridors within Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula are essential for the passage of the felines Pantera onca and Puma concolor and their prey. Today, the populations of fauna within the peninsula are endangered as a consequence of forest fragmentation, loss of habitat, and human settlements. The aims were to 1) Develop a methodology that contributes to the validation of proposed biological corridors that are integrated into management activities of protected areas and neighboring zones; 2) Identify criteria for the design and evaluation of functioning biological corridors, in zones located inside protected areas; 3) Evaluate the function of a proposed corridor between Corcovado and Piedras Blancas National Parks in Costa Rica; 4) Define areas that are critical for protection and that collectively help maintain the viability of a corridor in this region.

In order to design and validate biological corridors in the Osa Peninsula three fundamental method elements were used: Assessment of habitat use by felines and their prey; benefits from the corridor; Geographic Information System (paths within ranges with quality habitat); and guidelines for management of the area that consider the corridor as part of the overall landscape.

Identified on maps the habitat quality for wildlife species. The maps show that the available habitat areas are of excellent and good quality, but are smaller in areas of conflict, which forces species to travel in seriously altered environments. Designed potential routes for wildlife migration between two national parks, by crossing the Golfo Dulce Forest Reserve. The most important results were: 1) The capacity to build a conservation tool for a wildlife management program and 2) Some key conservation areas were identified based on wildlife habitat quality.

Created an initial proposal of activities to be developed as part of a conservation strategy for the Osa Conservation Area. Designed a proposed monitoring methodology, over five years, with the goal of verifying if the proposed wildlife migration routes are the best available. Based on habitat quality maps a field evaluation using radio tracked wildlife fauna will be necessary to evaluate if their movements are inside or outside proposed corridor boundaries.

• GIS is a powerful design tool if we are care in using it based on field key information.
• They are some troubles related with our capacity to analyse information in time and space.
• Field data and GIS data are good information sources if we have best rules to combine them.

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