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Welcome to the Costa Rican Bird Route!
Albergue El Socorro is one of 12 bird watching sites of the Costa Rican Bird Route Section San Juan - La Selva.
Bird watching is one of the fastest growing outdoor recreational activities in the world. Since Costa Rica holds nearly 5% of the world’s biodiversity, it is known worldwide as an excellent place for observing birds. Due to the country’s fine treatment of visiting tourists, Costa Rica is a logical location for the development of Central America’s premier Bird Route.
The Costa Rican Bird Route (CRBR) is a project being implemented by the Rainforest Biodiversity Group, Inc (RBG) with funding from the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Neotropical Migratory Bird Act (NMBCA). This project is being implemented to improve bird tourism and promote the conservation of bird habitat and the biological diversity within the San Juan – La Selva Biological Corridor (CBSS) in Costa Rica. Bird tourism will bring economic opportunities for local landowners and local communities via visiting eco-tourists and bird watchers providing an economic incentive for habitat conservation.
The Costa Rican Bird Route, at its inception, will consist of 12 bird watching locations. A criterion was established to ensure the selected locations provide the best bird watching and eco-tourism opportunities in this region of Costa Rica. This region supports the last remaining habitat of the endangered Great Green Macaw (Ara ambigua), the second largest parrot in the world, and the Costa Rican Bird Route will offer the most superb viewing opportunities on the planet of this rare species. |
Of the 12 Costa Rican Bird Route sites, 6 of the sites will be newly created reserves owned by local landowners called Remote Sites. These 6 sites will protect a minimum of 100 hectares (225 acres) of natural habitat. These Remote sites will be linked to 6 established biological reserves, or Portal sites, via the Bird Route Sister Reserve Program. To maintain environmentally sound tourism and conservation practices within the route, all Bird Route locations will adhere to a set of sustainable tourism practices. A monitoring system will be established to ensure sites adhere to their contractual practices.
Initially, the Costa Rican Bird Route will offer various nature tourism and bird watching opportunities or products. These products will allow both independent travelers and tour groups to readily explore, access, and enjoy the Bird Route and its great avian diversity. Portal sites and Tour Operators will offer day trips to Remote sites as well as multi-day packages to explore the Bird Route reserves. Additionally, existing tour groups can book a visit to the Costa Rican into their itinerary and if you want to explore the route on your own the Costa Rican Bird Route Map and Guide will show you the way.
The economic benefits provided by bird tourism to local landowners of this region will be extremely important for maintaining the ecological integrity of Costa Rica. If successful, this model of Bird Routes could improve the life for private landowners and promote natural resources conservation in other countries as well.
The Costa Rican Bird Route website is: www.greatgreenmacaw.org |
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