La Amistad International Park, also called Parque Internacional La Amistad in Spanish, was once known as La Amistad National Park. It is a protected area shared between Costa Rica and Panama. Costa Rica manages the Caribbean La Amistad and Pacific La Amistad Conservation Areas, while Panama also plays a role. UNESCO recommended this shared management after the park was added to the World Heritage Site list in 1983. The park and its surrounding biosphere reserve are among the most important conservation areas in Central America. They protect a large area of tropical forest wilderness. The park is famous for its high level of biodiversity and unique species found only in this region.
Geography
La Amistad International Park is divided equally between Costa Rica and Panama, and it was previously part of the La Amistad Reserves. The park protects a large area of the Cordillera de Talamanca mountain range, including Cerro Chirripó, which is the highest point in Costa Rica. It covers 401,000 hectares of tropical forest and is the largest nature reserve in Central America. With a 15 km buffer zone, the park is an important area for biodiversity, supporting about 20% of the region’s species. This area is part of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor and has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its location across the border between two countries makes it valuable for planning that benefits the entire region. The buffer zone includes areas where people grow coffee and raise beef cattle, as well as indigenous farmers who grow food for their own use. Three indigenous groups—the Naso, Bribri, and Ngöbe-Buglé—live within the park. These groups live in small, traditional villages.
Biodiversity
La Amistad International Park is unique in Central America because it shows signs of ancient ice ages, known as Quaternary glaciation. The repeated ice ages and the park's separation by difficult terrain have created many different types of habitats, which support a wide variety of plants and animals. More than 10,000 flowering plants, 215 mammal species, about 250 reptile and amphibian species, and 115 species of freshwater fish have been identified in the park.
Five types of large cats live in the park: pumas, ocelots, margays, jaguars, and jaguarundis. The park also protects important homes for endangered animals, such as the ornate spider monkey, the Central American tapir, and the splendid poison frog. At least seven amphibian species are found only within the park’s borders, including the Chiriquí fire salamander. The park is home to 600 bird species, such as the three-wattled bellbird, resplendent quetzal, yellow-green brushfinch, and bare-necked umbrellabird. Because it supports large numbers of bird species, the park has been named an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International.
The park’s rough and difficult terrain has made it hard to explore. Most major scientific studies in the park were led by the Natural History Museum London, INBio, and the University of Panama between 2003 and 2008. In 2006, the UK’s Darwin Initiative funded a three-year project led by the Natural History Museum London, INBio (Costa Rica), and ANAM (Panama). The goal was to collect basic information about the park’s biodiversity and create a map of its species. This work included seven expeditions to remote areas of the park, during which scientists collected over 7,500 plant samples, 17,000 beetle samples, and 380 herpetological (reptile and amphibian) specimens. These samples were stored in national collections in Costa Rica and Panama. The expeditions also discovered 12 new plant species, one new dung beetle species, 15 new amphibian species, and three new reptile species.